Kage Sora
by Rugiku
Summary: Three girls are thrown into the tumult of the Midnight Games from an accident. With an entourage of makeup artists, designers and dangerous enemies, they'll be lucky to survive a day! OC story and will be updated once every Friday
1. Prologue

Kage Sora

**Sooo... this is one of my stories. Although it's not a fan fic, I'd like you, the world, to read this. It may become a great book later on. **** This is a story about my OCs but expect it to be good... I think. It really depends on you guys out there reading this.**

**Btw, please review or something (I'm still pretty fresh with this site) and pass on this to any friends on this site (I'd like to attempt to get around 100 views some time during this story) :P**

**Anyway, please enjoy and the next chapter will be out tomorrow. XD **

**P.S. I don't really get the rating system...**

Prologue

Tuesday, 27 October 2009

I'm not going to mince words and sugar coat things and say that stories always end in happy endings. Life isn't like that. It constantly puts you to the test. It tests you to your complete limit and then kills you. That is the true essence of life. Then, whoever is controlling our life decides to keep you alive until you've fulfilled a certain purpose. That is true death. Not the grey, easy afterlife you receive after your body decays in one world that some spirits get after an eternity serving the deity who drives our lives.

The point of life then? Keep fighting, die and live your life your own way: free and uncontrolled by another.

You think that you're sticking your neck out when you shoplift something? Or steal a car? Or even forget your homework and have to copy it off someone else during recess? That's not as risky as this risk I'm taking now: telling all of you. About the Middle World.

Middle World is the centre of all the worlds and controls what happens in each individual world. Middle World also controls where the competitions are held, keeps track of who the contestants are, what they can do etc. What contestants? Oh yeah, the Games. They're called the Midnight Games everywhere. Haven't heard of them? You're not supposed to know in some worlds. In other universes, it's a public event. A celebration of a virtual massacre. People compete in these Games to win money, fame or for their own private, dark reasons.

If you're still not following me on the worlds bit, imagine a ring of tiny balls and your world is one of them. Like a pearl necklace. All of the worlds are connected by a channel or the thread that strings the pearls together. Contestants travel through these channels to get to other worlds. Once you've competed in all of the games in the unknown number of worlds, you can enter the Middle World. Middle World is the huge jewel in the centre of the ring with ties connected to all the smaller worlds. Most worlds look generally the same as "Earth". Your world. Others look so strange and wondrous, I'll explain/show you later.

So if all of the worlds are connected, what about the people?

The same people appear in another world unless another he/she is alive in another world. So if your mum were alive on "Earth", you wouldn't be able to see her in another world. However, if your mum had died or had mysteriously disappeared and appeared a month later floating face down in a river (which is still the same as dead), she will probably appear in another world. That way, you don't meet yourself in another world. That would just be plain creepy...

So, at the end of this sermon, don't do this at home. Actually, the chances of doing this yourself are one in trillions (although all of my friends managed to get into that tiny percentage), so forget that last statement. So, instead of going to these dangerous worlds yourself, I'll be going there myself and telling you about it in this diary. Now, my privacy isn't private so my friends will occasionally insert their own chapters from their point of view.

When are we leaving?

Well, we're going to start before I got this... Condition, so bear with me or just skip the next few chapters, but the next few chapters will explain quite a lot...

**Yeah, I started writing this in 2009 from the date that I am not bothered to delete. Hope you like and please review and drop any comments! ^^**

**This is only a taste of what's to come so please bear with me if you think it's a bit weird and boring.**

**My writing style has changed heaps as you will probably notice. **

**My friends from school are also described a bit in here as well but their names have been changed. I also have my sis in it later on, you'll see. (Misa-chan, you'll be on later in the story, don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you!)**

**Oh, yeah, in the story, there's a mention of a diary. Well, there really isn't one in this course of book so ignore that. Soz.**

**Luv youz**

**Rugiku~**


	2. Chapter 1

**Next chappie! Have fun with this. Sorry if it becomes really drawn out and you don't get it. Just review and I'll explain it to you. Just review and drop me a line! ^^**

**Btw, when it says "Chapter **_**n**_** and a name", it's from that person's P.O.V. I'm sure you'll like this. Rukaria, this is you so have fun!**

Chapter 1- Eve

Saturday, 10 October 2009

This day would change the lives all around us. It would change the lives of my friends and my own. This was the day that all of my closest friends would die. This was the day that Eve Walker would die. This was the day I would die.

And be reborn.

It started off just as any other day. I caught the train in the morning with Tori, one of my close friends, walked to school, sat with my group at recess, did my class work, and scribbled some drawings in the back of my book whenever the teachers turned away.

Lunch.

That was the turning point. It was the same, monotonous pace. Staring off into space, Rita and Tori joined me at the side of the raised driveway where we ate lunch every day. The rest of our group numbering nearly twenty were either sitting in the shade or off gallivanting around the school somewhere else.

There was a sudden feeling of pressure and our ears popped. Surprised, we looked around. The sound of an explosion erupted from the unused tennis courts, which had been converted into a temporary car park. The noise echoed eerily around the school grounds.

Before I could react, Tori had vaulted off the side of the driveway, fallen two metres in a skirt and landed on the concrete path below, completely unscathed, and ran off towards the explosion site.

Rita and I weren't the daredevil type, so we took our time going down the stairs and approaching the ruined car park.

Upon arrival, we noticed that there was a crater almost three metres in diameter and a metre deep with a crowd was already gathering around it.

I couldn't see Tori anywhere.

I noticed a trench-like depression in the gravel, which gave the appearance that someone had been dragged off somewhere.

Fighting my way through the crowd, I followed the tracks, leaving Rita to push half-heartedly through the crowd at a slower pace. I tracked the path down the gravel driveway, out of the school, and into the sparse bush and long grass, I heard Tori calling out,

"I know you're there. Don't even bother trying to become invisible. You're too weak to run that far."

Catching up to Tori, I asked,

"Who are you talking to?"

"When I got to the crater, I saw a guy who had passed out. His leg was lacerated and bleeding so I decided to get him out of there, otherwise he might have been sent to hospital. Then he would've been asked questions."

"Why didn't you just leave him there?" I asked slightly shocked.

"Can you answer police questions when you just drop out of the sky? Anything you tell them will sound like a lie. Anyway, when you see him, you'll see what I mean."

A slight rustle next to my ear made me flinch and turn sharply towards the sound. Instantly I understood what Tori meant.

This guy looked like a total delinquent. Bleached, white-blue coloured hair, pale and appeared as if he was on drugs (I assumed then he was), jeans and a white windbreaker. One would immediately assume he had been cutting school and gotten into a fight.

I looked down and saw what Tori had described to me. The side of his right leg sported a deep gash, the blood seeping through and staining the jeans he was wearing. I also noticed he was resting his weight on his left leg.

He was glaring at Tori.

Tori glared back.

At this time, Rita finally made it through the crowd and found us. When she saw his leg wound, Rita's eyes opened wide and her mouth dropped open.

"I think I have a first aid kit in my bag somewhere..." Rita mumbled still staring aghast at the wound. Tori and I looked at her sceptically. Who comes to school with a first aid kit?

Tori turned Rita around by the shoulders and gave her a shove in the back to get her moving. Rita runs off. Turning back once again to the mysterious boy, who is now leaning on a nearby tree for support.

"Who are you?" Is the first question.

"Why don't you tell me yours?" he snaps back.

Tori sighs with frustration.

"We'll never get anywhere with him, Eve"

Sighing, I say,

"My name is Eve Walker. My friend here is Tori Makino. Her full name is Victoria but she thinks it's too long and fancy. My other friend who went to get the first aid kit is Rita Hsu."

He seems to size me up and finally says,

"I'm Takoza or Kaz."

"You don't have a last name?" Tori asks.

"Do I need one?"

Tori and Takoza start resume their stare off. Luckily, Rita comes back with a tiny metal box in her hands to break the tension. Tori and Rita kneel on the ground and sort out the contents. The second Tori looks away, Takoza sags against the tree, sweating and even paler than before.

I put a hand on his shoulder and force him to sit down with a reassuring smile.

Rita produces a tube of antiseptic, bandages and a pair of scissors.

"I'm going to have to cut the fabric off. Is that okay?" Rita asks, slightly unsure.

Takoza nods once.

Tori holds a bottle of clean water and pours it over the wound. When the liquid touches the wound, it lets off steam causing Takoza to grit his teeth and hiss in pain.

Tori, Rita and I look at each other in astonishment. What would cause a wound like that?

I finally work up the courage to ask where he is from.

"A place where you'll probably never go in your life." He replies curtly.

I can feel my eyebrows furrow. What sort of answer was that?

Tori sighed as Rita finished putting on the bandage.

"You'll be okay, right? I mean, you think you'll be able to get to wherever you're going on that leg?" Rita asks with a worried expression on her face.

"Yeah," he replies, standing up before turning to walk away onto the nearby road. Tori and I turn away to return to lunch. Rita follows holding the nearly empty bottle and her tiny first aid kit snugly in her arms.

The ground rumbles slightly. I pause and look around, but Rita and Tori don't seem to notice. We continue walking. We make it back to our lunch spot to find our group talking about the incident that had just occurred. There was only about ten minutes left of lunch, so we settled down in the sun, everyone off in their own thoughts.

"Hey, did you feel that tremor from before?" Tori asks me quietly. Shocked, I look at her. I thought that she hadn't noticed.

"Yeah."

That was when all hell broke loose.

There was a heavy pressure and our ears popped once again, just like when Takoza had appeared earlier. Then the sky was rent open as scores of human-like figures rained down and landed around us. Most of my friends didn't even flinch, but a few looked around. It was like they couldn't hear or see these strange creatures.

One of these creatures landed near us, no more than a metre away. Slim silver claws at least a foot long protruded from its hands and a strange helmet with lethal-looking spikes adorned its head. It was covered in strange armour and had a distorted human-like frame, but bore an alien-like aura.

An eerie ear-piercing howl, not unlike screams of pain, erupted from the crack in the sky. The metallic warriors started to move.

**Hee, Hee. Cliff-hanger! The next chapter will come out next week, possibly earlier. O, yea, this story is loosely based on Bleach, Shana and various other mangas such as XxxHolic and D. Gray-man so if you see some resemblances, don't worry about it. Btw, I don't own any of those mangas and they all are owned by the respective artists. I take no credit for any of them. The only thing I take credit in is your praise! Provided you REVIEW!**

**Coolies! XD**

**Rugiku~**


	3. Chapter 2

**So, this is my next chapter. Hope you like it. Thanks Ruki-chan, Ri-chan, Zeffie- pon and Misa-chan for letting me use you as inspiration for this story... Even if some of you don't know that I'm writing about you...**

**T^T**

Chapter 2- Eve

Saturday, 10 October 2009

They sky dimmed considerably and it was now obvious that people were noticing. Stunned, students looked around bewilderedly, oblivious to the creatures that stood mere centimetres away.

Until now, the soldiers had stood inanimate. The howl. They moved like clockwork and got to work...

...Butchering everyone in sight.

Horrified screams echoed through the school as invisible entities slashed off limbs and heads of their friends. Many soon found out that the huge, silver claws that were lacerating the entire school body could be fired and embed themselves into flesh. To Eve, Rita and Tori, these monsters slashed and carved the people around them. To everyone else, friends and peers were beheaded invisibly as if there were a party of pirate ghosts complete with swords and were hacking away at humans.

A silver clad soldier swiped at Rita, slashing her arm but not severing it. Blood sprayed over the white concrete as Rita staggered away, clutching her wound, blood blossoming over her white school shirt.

Another soldier grabbed me hard from behind and lifted me up, feet clearing the floor, claws sinking deep into my arms. Beads of blood welled up and stained my shirt. I struggled to get free even if it caused the wounds to deepen. Blood splattered the floor beneath me and my vision blurred dramatically. I was losing too much blood. There was a loud bang and the suit of armour dropped me. Scrambling away from the scattered armour, I saw Takoza raise a black steel gun and blow off another soldier's head.

Looking around, I saw Tori dodging the slicing blades of another soldier. There must be hundreds of them. Movement on the roof drew my attention. A soldier had climbed onto the roof and was unnoticed by all but me. It was firing its claws to impale people and I soon found out that they regrew even after hundreds of shots. It turned its armoured head towards Tori. No, I had to do something, anything. Move, drag her out of the way. Just one step and everything else will follow. I still sat, quivering in fear. I was frozen, everything but my head had frozen in fear.

Hello, move your mouth, idiot!

"Tori, roof!" I screamed at her. She turned to have a flying blade embed itself into her right eye with a sickening thud, jerking her head back. She slumped to the ground, clearly dead. The other soldier moved onto more prey and the battle continued.

No, she can't be dead. She can't die. She was one of my best friends. We caught the train together in the mornings, we ate lunch together, we talked to each other during class, and she can't die and leave an empty space in all the lives of people who knew her.

Someone looped an arm around my waist. Thinking it was another armoured freak, I thrashed violently causing a fresh gush of blood to flow down my arms in crimson rivulets but it was only Kaz lifting me gently to my feet. He spun my shoulders to make me face him.

"Do you want to help these people? Most of all, will you fight?" he asked seriously. My eyes had welled up in tears and made everything blurry. Why was he asking me this? Why did he want me to fight these evil killers? Almost comically, Takoza looked up and blasted another soldier, making it crumble to bits. Looking back down into my face, he repeated his question.

"Will you fight for me?"

_For him?_

Now, I couldn't put a dent into these things and yet, he was asking me to fight for him. Why? What can I do? A black shadow loomed up behind Kaz and he didn't notice. I opened my mouth to warn him, but a blade from behind me, perhaps a stray missile, thudded deep into its chest. Kaz looked at me expectantly as screams still rent the air. If I agreed, I could help these people and save them all, but some instinct held me back. Something important told me not to accept his offer.

Without thinking, I said, "Yes".

He nodded and turned away. He wasn't going to do anything-

BANG.

Blood spurted out of my chest where he had shot me. Smoke drifted out of the barrel hole. My legs gave out as my blood oozed out of the wound and stained my white shirt and grey skirt. My vision began to blur, but that could just be the tears that were sliding down my face.

Faintly, I heard a familiar voice cursing my killer.

"Damn you!"

I really hoped that that person would live to see another day.

**Another cliffie! ^^ sorry about that. It's to keep you reading so please don't stop reading after I tell you that... if anyone is reading this and reviewing...**


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3- Kaz

Wednesday, 28 October 2009

Heavy pressure. Definitely those armour warriors. They chase out people from different worlds. Long story. I'll explain later.

My leg seemed okay, so I'll probably jump to the next world soon. I took another step and lightning pain racked my leg.

Maybe not.

Stumbling, I clutched my leg but my fingers touched rough bandage instead of ruined flesh. Those girls before. Perhaps I should go back to check on them, in case those machines start a massacre.

Nah.

They'll go back into their lives and forget about me. Besides those machines are only flushing out those who are stragglers into the next world so the best thing I can do for them is leave.

There were screams.

Damn, now I have to go back and save them! I start running off towards the massacre. I see the white ramp where those girls' scents were the strongest. Blood had been spilt. A lot of it.

My muscles bunch and a fresh batch of blood oozes onto the bandage sending a lightning bolt of pain up my leg. I jump anyway and launch myself ten metres into the air and onto the white, concrete slope.

Unzipping my windbreaker, I held my hand over the mesh cloth and concentrated. Black Lightning crackled and energy came into being. A patterned, large-barrelled, gold and silver gun materialised from the coat and into my hand. Pulling it out with a flourish, I started firing at the metal soldiers, turning them into ash.

I frantically searched for those girls. What were their names again? I finally spotted the brown haired girl. The one with hair the colour of honey. She was in a very painful grip with a metal soldier. I aimed carefully and pulled the trigger. The machine crumbled to bits.

Released, she collapsed to the floor. The blades had cut deep. Through her skin, flesh and halfway through the bone. Blood poured from her wounds. She will die of blood loss, even with this world's medical technology. There was only one way to save her.

The girl suddenly screamed out something to her friend, the feline-looking one, but she died. Her other friend was huddled in a corner, staring in shock of the gory deaths around her.

Picking the girl at my feet up by the waist, she started thrashing around randomly.

"It's me!" I shouted into her ear. She immediately fell limp, her blood splattering the ground.

"Do you want to help these people? Most of all, will you fight?" I asked calmly. She's seen her friend die so her answer would be fairly quick. Another metal soldier was charging at us so I fired my gun. It crumbled.

"Will you fight..." I asked. On a last ditch attempt to get her to answer, I added,"... For me?" She was fading fast. She opened her mouth but then a blade stabbed a soldier I didn't notice. Looking up I saw...

No one?

"Yes". Was the firm reply. Looking down, the girl was staring at me with a fierce determination, lighting fire in her eyes.

She looks just like...

Anyway, I turned away and turned my gun over my shoulder and pulled the trigger. Looking back, I saw... That's right. Her name was Eve. Eve, Tori and Rita. Eve Walker as she collapsed to the floor, the light fading out of her eyes.

"Damn you!"

_Whaaat?_

Tori had tackled me. Her right eye was shredded and bleeding profusely but amazingly, she was standing and angry. And_ alive_. Pinning my arms to my sides with her knees, she grabbed my collar, lifted me up and slammed my head into the concrete again. Her blood splattered over my face and she was breathing heavily.

"Why did you do that? Why did you shoot her?" she growled. I couldn't help but notice she was pretty. Albeit gory, blood-splattered and demonic looking. "Saving your friend, what else?" I said nonchalantly. "Now get off."

She didn't move. Rita came over and shook her shoulder gently. Surprisingly, Tori toppled off and landed in a dead faint. Hmm... She's also too weak to fight. Might as well bring her along. That was strange as well. Her eye was gouged out but she still lives... She was definitely a special person. The numbers were thinning of the soldiers (the names escaped me then), so I picked up Eve's limp form and returned my gun into my coat. I then slid my arm under Tori. She protested fuzzily, her speech slurring.

"Help!"

Shit.

"Rita!" Tori struggled weakly against me, trying to get to Rita who was in a chokehold of a metallic soldier.

"We can't save her." I shouted, electricity crackling at the plain earring with an inset of black sapphire.

"NO!"

I locked my teeth and feeling a fresh gush of blood trickle down my already soaked leg, I jumped into the swirling vortex into nowhere.


	5. Chapter 4

**Okay, my writing is seriously affected by what music I was listening to at that time so any weird stuff is probably a by-product of the various bands and singers I listened to around that time. In better explanation, the first chapter, I was probably listening to Redemption or Longing by Gackt (the two songs are in Dirge of Cerberus, FF game). The second chapter was The Musician by Yumi Mitora Kusakurin (song in DGM), the third was Daia no Hana (OP in Black Cat). Now, I'm listening to Just Say So by Brian McFadden and Alejandro by Lady Gaga... Mind you, I'm writing Chapter 12 right now and I'm not bothered to tell you what other songs on my iPod I was listening to in chapters 5-11. Anyway, after a long winded introduction, here's the story.**

**Enjoy!**

Chapter 4-Tori

Friday, 6 November 2009

When we jumped through the portal, I was still reaching vainly for Rita. The second thing that happened was that my eye was burning, as was the rest of my body.

"Aaagh!" I screamed, clutching my face. I couldn't hear anything else other than a roaring in my ears. The burning just kept on going but finally after what seemed like millennia, it finally stopped. Tears leaked out of my left eye. Thank God I was stabbed in my right eye: it was short-sighted while my left was long-sighted.

Yeah, weird, huh? I was happy that I was stabbed in my right eye and not that I was still alive. Anyway, looking down at myself, my clothes were shredded and bloody. My various scrapes and bruises were gone. My skin was completely unmarked. Over the years in Australia, you automatically amass a collection of sun moles and scars. They were all gone. Except for the new, puffy and raw stripe down my eye socket.

Okaaay. Weird much.

I then realised that there was no floor and I was hanging in a universe complete with mini solar systems and swirling nebulas. I also noticed Eve and Kaz. Eve was still dead and Kaz was unwinding the bandage from his leg. I sort of floated towards Kaz and Eve when she started to move.

Okaaay. I've seen heaps of horror movies when dead bodies came back to life, but this takes the cake. One of my close friends' wounds close up, the bullet falling out of her chest and look around bewilderedly.

"You up yet?" Kaz asked. Eve looked up and nodded. Good, she was alive and proper... I hope...

I helped Eve up and took a proper look around. In the distance we were approaching a bright light. Squinting, I threw up my arm to shield my face, my other hand clutching Eve's arm.

My feet hit solid ground hard and I staggered a bit then fell forward, my hands touching thick carpet. Yep. Carpet. It was definitely a room with bright lights because I couldn't stop squinting.

"OH! LOOK AT THE SIGHT OF YOU!" I jumped in shock of the loud voice.

"Hello, Rosie Red. I have some new arrivals." Kaz said wearily. My eyes were getting used to the brightness so I saw a very plump lady wrapped in ruby and pearl necklaces and an ill-fitting red dinner dress. Her hair was piled up on top of her head and her face seemed coated in centimetres of makeup. Watery eyes squinted through red glass frames that looked worse because her head was way too big for the glass frames so she looked like a pig wearing swimming goggles. She first went over to Kaz and cupped his face angling it to the left and right and muttering into a speaker that popped out of her glasses. Next she trotted over to me and inspected my face.

"Pretty face at least. The purification system did its job and got rid of excess fat on your body. Nice hair as well." she muttered. I had noticed I had gotten heaps skinnier. So had Eve. Especially on the legs. Oops.

"Beautiful eyes, sweetie." she patted my cheek, scratching my face at the same time. I waited by as Rosie Red inspected Eve and fawned over her dual coloured eyes.

Finally, she handed us over to two people, a man and a woman in matching uniforms. These people looked much more normal aside from the weird hair. The man guided Kaz into a different room while the other lady showed us into a studio. I had a million questions for Kaz but for now, I'll hold them until I see him again.

Eve and I split up into a smaller studio. I had wall length mirrors and a wooden ceiling with strobe lights. A man who looked incredibly normal compared to Rosie Red entered the room. He wore a simple black ensemble , light makeup: dark blue eye shadow to accentuate his sapphire eyes, chocolaty hair and a kinder smile than everyone else I've met so far.

"Hi, I'm Kalif and I am your makeup artist from now on." He said kindly.

I hoped everyone else has a person like him.

He didn't speak. He walked around me, inspecting me like an animal.

"Let's get you out of that uniform and get you into a new set of clothes."

An hour later, we had picked out clothes for myself and he had made me soak in a bath of some sticky green liquid, which caused my body's hair to fall out apart from my head. He had also pierced my ears and dripped some silver liquid onto the new holes to age a few months so it wouldn't become infected. He also answered a few questions of mine. We were now candidates for a game in parallel universes called The Midnight Games. Middle World has already registered us and we will travel to different worlds to fight.

One problem. I didn't know jack about fighting apart from the general shin kicks.

Kalif helped me dress in my new clothes; torn black sleeves and a mesh shirt. Under that were a black singlet and a pair of black short-shorts and two thick, gold belts that crossed over each other. On my legs was a pair of calf-length boots. They were made of a sturdy cloth and black leather. The top of the boots folded down and the zips! Instead of trying to hide them, they became an accessory. The rims were painted white and they were surprisingly light compared to other boots.

I was sitting in front of a mirror similar to a hairdresser's seat. I reached up to touch my hair. It was curly, uncommon for an Asian. It was a haircut my dad treated me with at the end of my first year of high school. Feeling my hair, I wondered. If this was a new beginning for Eve and I, would I change myself so I won't look like what I was before? Or do I keep these last mementos of my past life?

Kalif came in holding a bunch of hairdressing equipment.

"Kalif, please straighten my hair and cut it short. Neck length if possible." I said firmly. "Also, can you do something about my eye?"

Kalif smiled and got to work.

**Okay, okay, I renamed some of the things in there cos I got sick of it. I really should be more original, so a lot of the stuff has or will be changed. **


	6. Chapter 5

**Chappie 5! Enjoy and also, I have redone some of the main concepts in the story so bear with me.**

Chapter 5- Eve

Sunday, 8 November 2009

After my hairdresser had done my hair, I was allowed to walk out of the studio doors. Kaz was already outside but Tori was still with her designer. When Kaz looked over his eyes widened in surprise. I couldn't blame him. I was in a plain, red shirt and a black tartan coat. It stopped at the bottom of my ribs so stuck out a bit. The sleeve cuffs were a snowy white and I wore a simple black miniskirt. I also wore a pair of matte black leg warmers and brown shoes similar to my school shoes. My hair was also dyed blonde, curled and mussed compared to my long, straight, brown hair I had before. Kaz was generally the same, only healthier looking after the bleeding stopped.

"I've been wondering, but is your hair really that colour, or did you dye it?" I asked.

Kaz laughed.

"No one has asked that question before. I guess they all assumed it was dyed, but it's my natural hair colour." He said with a grin. I just stared at him stunned. Tori then walked out of the opposite room. At least I think it was Tori... The other girl stared at me in shock as well. She had short, black hair that was ironed flat and her designer had coloured chunks of it red. A black bandanna was wrapped around her head and a black eye patch over her ruined eye. Her clothes were generally black and white but the combination was awesome. Tori went from typical, weird teenage school kid to very short pirate/super model within two hours.

Another weirdly dressed person walked into our waiting room and directed us to another room. This was stone with soaring arches and huge pillars thicker than the thickest tree on Earth. There were different platforms with stairs connecting them. A stand of seats in the corner were where we were headed. Tori and I sat down in the seats but Kaz didn't. Metal probes jumped out of the plush seats before I could say anything and attached itself to my temples. In rushed all these pictures and knowledge of weaponry and fighting into my head. Different lengths of blades and how to care for them how to make them, how to break them, any mundane facts about weapons flowed into my head as did any mundane facts about hand-to-hand combat.

When the probes had finally let go, I slid out of my chair and onto the stone floor, head pounding from the inrush of information. When the headache subsided, I stood up and followed the weapons director we were introduced to.

"The name's Max. Nice to meet you all. You have a weapon of choice yet?" He asked. Kaz nodded while Tori and I shook our heads. The director dragged us over to a wall of weapons. He ordered us to pick two weapons. Tori and I stood there dumbfounded.

"Go on! Let the weapon pick you!" He shouted, shoving us in the backs. I walked past a wall of maces and flails when I got to the Japanese section. Somehow, here felt the best place to start. I ran my hand down blades and hefted weapons. I finally picked a well oiled wooden bow with silver and mother-of-pearl inlays including a sheath of arrows. I still needed to pick one more weapon though. I glanced over at Tori and she had picked a huge two-handed sword, a silvery scythe with a huge blade and a pair of black leather gloves.

Why gloves? No idea.

I was still deciding on the weapon when I felt a weird aura from one of them. It was a katana. In its plain black sheath was a beautiful work of art. The blade's colour was not silver like most swords, but blue and rippled on the bottom half of the blade and black on the top half of the blade. The gold guard glowed ephemerally in the light and the red hilt was wrapped in fine silk with two lucky charms dangling off the end. I gently eased it off the shelf and held it in my hand. It felt perfect for my hand.

The weapon director was assessing Tori's selection of weapons while Kaz was at a separate wall with another director having his weapons repaired. As I walked closer, I heard snatches of Tori's conversation with Max.

"You need two weapons, not three."

"I know, I want to test all of these out."

"This is too heavy and large for you. I would recommend this weapon for a grown male, but not a young lady like yourself. Did you consider a different, lighter blade?" Max asked.

Tori frowned.

Oh, crap. Nobody wants to be near Tori when she blows up; especially over prejudice.

"Yeah? I'd like to see you beat ME." she snapped. The director sighed.

They started clearing tables out of the way and assumed battle stances. Max was holding a pair of metal knuckle guards.

Tori suddenly swung her blade upwards and brought it down, trying to slash Max's shoulder. I was quite surprised she could move it since the blade was more than half her height. It connected with a crash on the knuckle guards.

Max flicked the blade aside, the weight of the blade dragging Tori after it making an opening in her defence. Max casually pushed Tori who were already off balance. Tori came crashing down on the floor.

"See what I mean?" Max said. Tori stared at the ground in defiance. I prayed that she would just take this loss and move on. Tori slowly picked up the sword and put it back on the shelf. I let out a sigh of relief.

"I still want to see your other weapons. Just in case you can't use them either."Max said. Tori held out a silvery metal staff. Wasn't that a scythe before?

They assumed their battle stances again.

This time Max moved first. Swinging with his fist, it crashed into Tori's staff, her arms trembling from the strain. There was a quiet _snick_ and the retractable blade snapped out, slashing the director's loose clothes. The director broke out laughing.

"Boy, that was the closest I've had to a gutting in a training session!" he said. "That scythe is perfect for you. A little too perfect actually." Tori blushed.

The same thing happened with Tori's gloves in her test. She proved equal in hand-to-hand combat with the director.

Finally, Max gave up and allowed Tori three weapons instead of two.

Then, it was my turn while Tori went to the wall of weapons to pick her last weapon. I drew an arrow from the quiver and set it onto the bowstring.

Instantly, years of knowledge instinctively came to mind and I drew back the arrow and let it loose. It hit the target dead centre.

I surprised myself. Max came over to pat me on the shoulder.

"Nice work" he said. Next was my naginata. Holding it with the blade down near my ankle, I stood ready to anticipate Max's first move.

We did not move for a while, actually. We stood in silence. He was trying to get me impatient and strike first. He was right. I grew impatient and swung recklessly and was awarded with a hard thump on the back.

"This weapon is not for you." Max said. I cast away the naginata and drew my sword. I was raw from the loss so I was ready to go, but when I drew my sword, Max's eyes widened and he dropped his guard.

"That blade is cursed. The past three users have died horrible deaths," he waved his hands frantically. "I won't touch it!"

"Really? I think it's made for me." I said.

The director looked at me in shock.

"O-okay, you can keep it." He said. A whistling sound similar to a very fast skipping rope came from the weapon shelf, but it was only Tori swinging around a long whip with thorns studded at the end.

Max then showed us how to materialise and de-materialise our weapons. Kaz showed us how to do it and also what his two weapons were.

One was a broad-bladed two-handed sword, similar to the sword Tori picked out. His last weapon was a gold and silver gun. It was thick barrelled, had a decorative streak down the gold and was hefty looking.

Along the handle was carved: Nirvana.

During the practices, Kaz came over to help me.

"What's after this?" I muttered out of the corner of my mouth.

"You'll meet the Midnight Game proctors." Kaz whispered out of his mouth. When we had finally mastered the skill, which was pretty easy anyway, Max led us to another room.

This room was larger than the weapon room because you couldn't see the other side. The walls curved inwards so I supposed it was circular as well. I felt like we were in a huge pipe. We stepped onto a moving platform, which stopped in front of a long table of people in black cloaks. What a cliché.

"Yooou, muuussst passsss thissss tesssst. Iffff yooou passsss, yooou willlll enteeeer theee Gaaamesss." They boomed: very loudly.

I couldn't stand it. Before I could say anything, Tori shouted back,

"Yeeessss, weeee heeear yooou weeeellll enooough. Yooou dooon't neeeed tooo shooout!" Behind Tori, I saw Kaz rubbing the bridge of his nose and Max looking aghast. I knew her snideness would kill us all.

I reached out to hold Tori back but she kept going.

"When are we going home? I don't need to listen to some idiotic people in a black blanket to tell me what to do. You can't decide what to do with me."

"INSOLENT CHILD! YOU DARE TO INSULT THOSE WHO BROUGHT YOU INTO YOUR WORLD?" they roared but Tori kept ploughing on.

"Uh, I don't plan to insult my mother anytime soon, thanks." she said in a tone that dripped 'duh'.

The board seemed to swell in size and bulge outwards.

"YOU ARE IGNORANT TO THE WORLD YOU ARE IN! YOU WILL PAY DEAR-"

"That's quite enough."

A man dressed in a black tuxedo stepped out onto what I thought was empty space. Where he stood was a metal platform that was glowing a pale blue. The light faded from over the table of cloaked, black figures. The man in the tuxedo stopped in front of our platform.

"Hi, my name's Aaron Fisher. I'm one of the Middle World's top directors. Since the board of introduction has lost their wits over a young lady like you, I'm here to congratulate you and explain fully why you are here and the conditions of your entry." As he introduced himself, a sharp hiss emanated from where the table had been previously, their occupants obviously offended.

"You are here to compete in a competition and in order to do that, you need to travel to different worlds. As many as possible until the competition date rolls over. If you miss the games, you will not be permitted into that world and be moved to the next world. Our receptionists will provide you will transportation devices and currency you win from Games you have completed. Be warned. Once you leave a world, you may not be permitted back in the previous dimension," Aaron completed. "Good luck." with a smile, he floated up and away on his board before we could say anything.

The door behind us open up and let us out into a new room.

There were two ladies sitting behind an obsidian desk. They both had kind smiles on their faces but the humour didn't seem to be reflected in their eyes.

One said in a bell-like voice, "What are your names for the duration of the Midnight Games? You may use aliases or pseudonyms in place of your real names. You must also register your signature weapon's name. You may pick one from our lists or create one of your own." Max and Kaz stepped aside for Tori and I to write down our names.

We stood staring blankly at the paper in front of us. I peeked over at Tori's paper. Blank.

I thought carefully about my life before. I could use my internet alias. Maybe.

Tori was already filling out her form. I slowly and deliberately started to mark down the details on the bunch of paper that as presented to me.

There. Done. I was confident in my answers.

Name: Kiru Rhapsody

Age: 14

Gender: Female

Weapon Name: Bloody Mary

Type: Japanese Katana

Description: Plain black sheath, blue, rippled blade, silk wrapped hilt, gold guard, red silk decorations.

I peeked over at Tori's page that had:

Name: Flika Libera

Age: 14

Gender: Female

Weapon Name: Night Shade

Type: Whip

Description: Wire wrapped handle, black leather whip. Metal studs at tip.

We slid our forms over to the receptionists and they accepted them. In return, they handed us an earring and a ring apiece.

"These are for transportation. Just think of the next world and it will transport you to the place.

I slid my earring into my already pierced ears while Tori- I mean Flika fixed hers into her left ear. I hadn't noticed Flika's ears were pierced. We slid the rings onto our fingers and faced Kaz while he bid farewell to Max.

I reached out to grasp Kaz and Flika's hands.

"So we won't be split up if we accidentally go to a different world." I hastily added. Kaz grinned evilly and nodded. We held our breath and jumped.

**Yes, I've changed the names of the weapons because I need to be more original. -_-;;;**

**They used to be from Bleach but yeah, I got sick of all the criticism and changed it all. So hopefully, everyone will be okay with the changes.**


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6- Kaz

Saturday, 14 November 2009

We materialised into the next world and landed ungracefully onto pavement. I stood, brushing off dirt from my clothes. Eve was sitting on the concrete looking a bit windswept, but then, that could just be her hairstyle. Jeez, I couldn't stand those fawning stylists every time you entered Limbo.

Looking around, high-rise buildings filtered out light from the sky above. Helping Flika and Kiru up from the dusty floor, we stepped into the light. The street teemed with party-goers and strangely dressed people. We wouldn't stick out at all. First, to find a place to stay.

We walked a block and found a hotel with a Celtic cross design next to the name. The cross was a sign for all contestants in the Games that you could use this facility which was built specifically for the games. We entered the twenty storey building and immediately bumped into a child holding a stack of books.

"Ow..." moaned the kid. We bent to pick up her books and hand them over to her which she accepted with thanks. I guessed she was about eleven and her head just reached my shoulder. Her long aqua hair was tied up in two pigtails and cascaded down her grey, sleeveless shirt and black shorts. She was wearing leg warmers, a pair of fingerless gloves and black shoes

"Hi, I'm Zefie. Who are you?" she asked.

"My name's Kiru, she's Flika and he's Kaz." Kiru pointed to us in turn.

"Okay, this hotel is full though, thought you ought to know. If you want, you can stay in my room. There're some other people with me as well, but they won't bother you much." Zefie said. I looked at Kiru and she shrugged.

"We would be honoured to stay with you." I said with a bow. Flika shot me a disdainful look which I ignored.

Zefie's 'room' was a huge suite with a window seat to look out over the city. We were sixty floors up (which was a bit weird because from outside, one could only count twenty floors) and the view was awesome, but the elevator ride took ten friggin' minutes to get to our floor from the lobby and we were only halfway up the building. The walls were a honey colour with mahogany cabinets and a marble bathroom. Two of them.

It was late afternoon when we first stepped into the suite after asking for another key to Zefie's room.

The 'other person' Zefie mentioned was sitting on the window seat when we entered. He was holding a huge bandaged bar about the size of a human torso and one of the ends pointed at the door.

Call me paranoid, but I automatically tense up when someone points anything (and I mean anything) at me. Adrenaline iced is way through my veins as the stranger regarded us coolly, ears muffled by the white headphones he wore. He must have seen the key that Kiru was holding because he set his weapon on the floor and stood, smiling.

"Zefie's picked up a few more hasn't she?" he asked. "The name's Allen. Nice to meet you. That's Keshi over there and Rio is the one on the cupboard." Allen pointed to a dirty blonde with messily curled hair and mixed blue and green eyes. A pink and black hoodie with black leggings and a pair of black converse shoes were the clothes she was wearing. Gold earrings and a white undershirt... Well, I think her clothes hadn't been changed for a while now. She grinned as I looked her over, deciding whether I could fight her off if she decided to cut my throat in the middle of the night.

Yep, that's paranoia for you.

The little kid who crouched atop a heavy wooden cupboard wore a... Well...

A ninja suit.

Complete with a straw hat and a black bandanna, the little child was poised on the flat, wooden top like a cat. He was clothed in a cream-coloured, loose-fitting t-shirt, fingerless gloves with metal guards on the backs of his hands, blue shorts with a black belt and blue sandals.

What was even creepier was his eyes were a molten gold.

That didn't seem to faze Kiru since she walked over to the cupboard and held out her arms to catch him.

"Come on down here, Rio. No need to be scared." Kiru said. Rio seemed to consider the offer and then jumped down into Kiru's arms. She looked a little shocked when she caught him but smiled at Rio's face when he looked at her, begging (almost) for a pat on the head or something.

Keshi looked out of the window and noticed that the sun had sunk below the skyline. Standing up, she clapped hands with Flika and sat down in one of the eight armchairs in front of a window. Flika joined her there and Zefie entered her suite and greeted everyone. After about an hour, All of the younger kids had fallen asleep (these including Rio and Zefie who took up a single bed between them), Allen and I were lying on our own beds and Eve, Flika and Keshi were sitting in their armchairs, chatting quietly.

After a while, I drifted off to sleep. For once, I managed to get to sleep during the night. Alright, what's wrong with being an insomniac?


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7- Kiru

Tuesday, 17 November 2009

"Hey, wakey, wakey!" I heard Tori's... no, Flika's voice from far away. We spent quite a while talking last night about our previous lives so now I was tired and wanted to sleep in.

Memories floated to me then;

"I wish Rita was here to see all this." I had mused last night. Flika had a strange look on her face.

"You know those metal soldiers?" Flika started.

"Yeah," I said, a hint of suspicion in my voice.

"They took Rita. I don't know what happened to her 'cause Kaz had already jumped into Limbo." she said. Interpreting my puzzled face, she added, "It's the place we were when you woke up."

"Oh."

Flika just looked so lost and distraught. Rita was my best friend while Tori was a good friend, I know that was unfair but I guess she already knew so I smiled and said,

"You never know, she could still be alive,"

Flika didn't say anything but stood up and walked to the cupboard and produced three blankets. She threw one over Zefie and Rio who were curled up in one bed, one over Allen who had his hands behind his head, his eyes closed. Flika stood next to Kaz's bed, holding a fluffy blanket. I didn't know that she was a caring type. Especially to guys.

In school before this mess happened, she would kick, shout and punch any boys that went within one metre of her. Now she was laying blankets on people she had just met.

Huh.

Still, maybe what had happened had hurt her really badly.

Present time

My mind drifting, I hadn't noticed that Keshi was asking my opinion on something incredibly important:

"Should we go shopping for arena clothes, or city clothes?"

"Aren't they the same?" complained Kaz. "I don't see why we have to come too either."

"What's up." he added in my general direction.

"Arena clothes are for the arena, obviously, and city clothes are for going out in to the city and parties. You decided to come on your own free will anyway!" Keshi called over her shoulder, dragging on her hoodie she had shed during the night.

My mind was still fuzzy but Flika tugged on my arms.

"Come on! We're gonna hit the city." she said with a smile.

"Don't forget, we're also going to the Games which are starting today," Kaz called over his shoulder. "Let's go." I jolted upright as Allen tossed a bottle over to me.

"It's to clean your teeth. Don't swallow it." he added with a wink. I took a mouthful and swilled it around my mouth. It tasted exactly like toothpaste and alcohol but when I read the ingredients, I spat it out into the sink. The liquid went from a crystalline clear to an opaque vomit green.

I grabbed my coat and set my glasses on my nose and ran out the door.

I ran for a few steps but the glasses were doing funny things to my vision. I took them off and I could see clearly. Well, my glasses were reading glasses, but I could see perfectly well. I tucked away my lenses into my breast pocket and ran on.

I caught up with Flika as she stepped onto the glass lift. We stared at the scenery in awe as the lift descended. We entered the lobby and were crossing the threshold to the basement when the receptionist I vaguely remembered from last night stopped us.

"I think I forgot to give you your payment cards. They each contain about ten thousand flowers. Flowers are the currency which is accepted anywhere in any world you will go to," The receptionist handed us plastic cards about the size of my palm in the shape of a flower with golden stamens radiating out from the middle. The pink petals had a cleft in the tip so it looked like a cherry blossom. "We can replace these at any time you give us the previous card. It has a screen on the back which displays the name of the world and how many flowers you have. Use these like a credit card and money you win from the Games are automatically deposited into your cards." He handed the plates of plastic and glass to us.

"Be careful with them and don't go wild in the shopping mall!" the receptionist said with a wink. I smiled as Flika shouted her thanks as she weaved her way through the crowds in the lobby. We crammed into the steel lift and clicked the 'B2' button.

We stepped out of the lift as the doors opened up into a parking lot. At the far end of the car park was a ramp to the sunlight outside.

"Pick a car, any car!" shouted Allen like a circus hawker. I walked towards the cars and saw a sleek, red car called something like a Cameo or something. I wasn't a big fan of cars. Allen whistled.

"Nice eye for cars!" he said.

I looked over to Kaz and Flika as Rio, Zefie and Keshi tumbled into the back seat and Allen played with the controls and the steering wheel.

They were looking at a pair of glossy looking motorbikes. They were matte black and had no apparent handles. Kaz showed Flika the controls. The helmet Flika put on had a sharp and accented design and was the same colour as the motorbike. Flika slotted her hands into holes which opened up when she touched a panel. She grabbed some handles (I guess) and the engine purred into life.

Wheeling around, she sped up the ramp into the sunlight while I watched astonished. She was only fourteen! How come she can drive?! Now that I think about it, Allen looks about fifteen or sixteen at best. Kaz looked about fifteen as well. Where did they learn how to drive! Wasn't it illegal?!

Kaz slipped on a black, glossy helmet with red streaks and sped up the ramp after Flika on his own motorbike.

"Come on! Get in! Don't you want to follow them?" came an impatient cry from within the car. I slid into the front passenger seat and shut the door. I looked over my shoulder but there was no seat belt. Before I could say anything, we sped into the sunlight.

About ten minutes later weaving in and out of traffic with Keshi and Zefie fantasising about what outfits they were going to buy, we arrived at a huge department store.

Stepping out of the car we had parked in a _reserved_ lot, we stepped through huge glass doors and entered a huge, well-lit chamber with shopping fronts with lavish dresses and formal attire to what looked similar to a Supré shop.

Keshi was already drifting off towards some shops with Zefie, Kaz was looking at a directory for a bookstore and Allen was following his nose to the food court with Flika tagging along with him. Rio tugged at my sleeve and pointed towards a toy store.

Well, he is a kid so I wasn't surprised and let myself be towed along shelves of stuffed teddy bears and train tracks. Rio handed a pink card to me and ran off into another corridor filled with electronic gadgets. The pink card was his Flower card and as I walked down the aisle Rio disappeared in, I flipped it over to view the contents.

I froze.

This kid has been busy. There were about a hundred times more Flowers on the glass screen than I did!

Rio came wandering back with an armful of toys he wanted and dragged me over to the cashier. I payed with Rio's card and as the shopkeeper was handing over the two bags full of lollies and trinkets, he winked at me and said with a smile,

"Good luck in the Games!"

Stunned, I muttered my thanks and walked out of the door. I noticed that everything in the bag was a temporary item. Lollies, paper but no proper toys or sentimental items.

Keshi already had five bags full of shopping and Zefie had an extra three and was trailing behind the older girl.

Kaz was waiting outside, leaning on a marble pillar. I wandered over to him and muttered out of the corner of my mouth,

"Are the Games a public thing here?"

"Yeah, it's quite popular as well." He said.

I guess every world was slightly different. I scanned the vast, marble room and realised people were missing.

"Where are Flika and Allen?" I asked. Kaz looked around as well and spotted them talking to each other near a pillar. As if they knew we were looking, they looked up and Flika smiled. She waved and walked towards us as Allen tagged along behind her.

"Are we done?" Flika asked. I nodded and we headed towards the lifts to the car park.

Flika was hiding something.

"Why don't we explore the city a bit more before the Games start. We can split up and meet back at the Games registration." Allen suggested after we stepped out of the lift. Keshi was all for it and Zefie wanted to go see the travelling circus that was apparently in this city with Rio and I. Kaz wanted to check out a museum near the circus site and Allen and Flika wanted to check something out downtown, so we split up. Allen borrowed Kaz's motorbike (Kaz: "You get a single scratch on it, I will kill you.") and Kaz drove the car out of the parking lot.

Out of the passenger seat's window, I watched Allen and Flika speed away from us.

We got to the Circus in time to see a parade pass us by when Kaz left us for the museum. Keshi and Rio went to the Fairy floss stand closely followed by Zefie. I hung back to look at the rides. They were something similar to Disneyland, Movie World, Wet and Wild and Dream World mixed together but higher, faster, more dangerous an therefore, more fun!

I payed for a few tickets and headed towards a huge rollercoaster which I went on for about twenty minutes and then headed off to another ride. A few hours later, Kaz joined us and rode a few more rides and tried a few prize games as well.

As we walked past a firing range game, the stand holder called out to us.

"Why don't you try your luck? Hit all five targets and get a prize. Hit all of them in the middle, take your pick of a special prize! What do you say?"

Kaz slid over his Flower card and picked up the plastic gun with paintball bullets. He took aim and pulled the trigger.

It hit the red target dead centre. People passing by applauded Kaz as he hit the next four targets the same place where he hit the first.

"The one on the far right."

The stallholder took down a chain with a flat, silver piece of metal. It looked very similar to an Egyptian cartouche. _Finest Platinum Make _said the little attached tag in ornate writing. Turning me around, he hung the necklace around my neck and picked up his card from the counter.

"How did you do that?" I asked. Kaz grinned and said,

"Luck"

"That was not luck. You've done this before! You have a real gun yourself so that was unfair."

"The fifth target twitches every half second slightly so that the player will never hit the centre."

"Oh."

A thought occurred to me then.

"How did you know that it twitches? Did you see it or something?"

Kaz was silent for a while, his face inscrutable.

"Yes. Everyone who competes in Games have a special talent or skill. Some can see, smell and hear incredibly well, like me. Others have huge physical strength like you. When you caught Rio after he jumped off the dresser, he was incredibly light, right?"

I nodded.

"I was surprised that he weighed that much to me. Rio weighed about as much as a homeless cat when I caught him."

"There are other skills like running far and fast, jumping to incredible heights, high agility abilities, controlling elements-"

"Wait, like fire, water, earth and air?"

"Yes. That, and flying."

"Flying?!"

"Yes."

"Like with wings or levitating?"

Kaz sighed irritably.

"It really depends on the person. The skill also depends on the person as well and it's not very uncommon to find two or more skills in a single competitor. That's the problem. You have to go on first impressions if you want to know what skill they have in the arena because the type of skill you have can change the course of the battle."

I quickly filed away these pieces of information for the battle later.

Kaz peered at his Flower card.

"Look at the time! We need to go." He exclaimed and proceeded to drag me to the circus entrance. We passed a hammer game and I pulled against Kaz. I wanted to try something.

"It'll be quick." I reassured him. The huge goliath in front picked up the blue hammer with a grunt and swung it down on the red button. The needle rose about half a metre and fell back to the plate with a clang. The person gave me the hammer and walked off to the stall to collect his prize.

I hefted the hammer in one hand and noticed the previous player stare at me astonished. Was it really that heavy?

I swung the hammer to hit the big fluorescent button. The dial swung all the way to the second highest tag: _Choker and Platinum Tag_. I walked over to the stand and the bored stallholder tossed over three chokers and three dog tags. Awesome! Three for one. I quickly swiped them and ran to catch up with Kaz who had walked on without me.

"Here." I thrust a tag chain at Kaz and watched him put it on as we walked. We met Keshi, Rio and Zefie at the entrance and I gave the two girls the chokers and a tag to Rio.

We drove out to the registration building which was six storeys high and very schmancy looking. Walking into the building, I looked around for Flika and Allen. They weren't here yet. Kaz walked over to the counter and handed in the cards he had collected from us. A few minutes later, he called me over.

"You need to fill out this form." He told me.

I looked at the form and wrote down the details needed.

Name: Kiru Rhapsody

Age: 14

Gender: Female

Skill: Strength, unknown

Weapon Name: Benihime

Type: Japanese Katana

I put down the pen.

I walked back and sat with the rest of the group, preparing our weapons.

We sat there for about an hour and still, no sign of Flika and Allen while the lobby slowly filled up with contestants. A buzzer sounded and a cool woman's voice came out of hidden speakers.

'The registration is closed for this Midnight Game. The Arena battle will commence in five minutes. Your group, opponents and order of appearance will be shown on the screen. Thank you for participating in this Game. The Middle World wishes you all luck.'

I guess Flika and Allen will miss out on this Game.

**7****th**** chapter already? **


	9. Chapter 8

**So yeah, first chapter with a title... hope you like it. On second thought, I think its crap....**

Flika's Will... Of Fire

She gazed out of the visor in her helmet at the sky; the same sky was over Kiru and the rest of the group.

_They must be having fun_ she thought. Allen's voice crackled into her earpiece.

"Read to go?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Who is this 'Madam Red' you told me about at the food court?" Flika asked.

"You'll know when we get there."

As they drove, Flika watched the scenery change. As they got closer to downtown, the streets gradually grew dirtier and narrower, the people, grubbier and shorter. They arrived at a building. It was grey, the windows were grey, the door was grey, and the roof was grey. Not a place where a woman called 'Doctor Red' would live.

Allen walked into the grey lobby and sauntered up to the (wow, who'd have guessed?) grey, front desk.

"Doctor Red?" He asked. The ageing receptionist looked behind Allen and Flika. The teenage girl turned sharply to find herself in front of a woman in a white dress shirt, long, grey, business trousers, tailored to fit her specifically and a white lab coat. Her face was porcelain white and was not painted with makeup except for a touch of bright red lipstick. She was exceptionally beautiful with long, straight, ebony hair tied back for her work and she was in her mid-twenties. Her eyes, on the other hand, explained why she was named, 'Madam Red'.

They burned like Hell.

That was an understatement...

Shocked, Flika took a step back and walked into Allen.

Madam Red smiled and beckoned them over to her office.

Inside the office, Allen asked the first question.

"We are looking for someone from another world which we do not know where they are. How can we find them? They both may have been kidnapped by the same people."

Madam Red inspected her red painted fingernails and finally said,

"I don't know how to find them. I do, however, know where to go if you are looking for slave traders. That is your best bet if you want to find someone in a foreign world. Go to the Black Market of every new world you visit. You may find leads on where your missing friends may be. However, the Underworld does not take kindly to Midnight Game contestants because many ex-contestants are law enforcers. You need disguises."

Madam Red looked the two children over and sat at her desk for a while. She started sketching on a piece of paper and occasionally looked up to assess the two youths in front of her.

An hour later, she was satisfied with her drawings. Taking the two kids down a corridor and a flight of steps, they appeared in a well-lit, circular, marble room. Madam Red handed the pieces of paper to a passing worker who hurried off into a corridor. The room had twenty corridors all branching off into the distance. Turning back to her young guests, she led them down another corridor to a similar room but the floor was a well worn rock.

Madam Red peered into Allen's eyes.

Turning to Flika, she took one look into her eyes and staggered back, _afraid_. Gradually, Madam Red relaxed and regained her composure.

"Sorry, it's just that I haven't seen someone with eyes like mine. Your spirit is awash with flames and it shows in your eyes, but your full strength has not been realised yet." Flika looked dumbstruck.

"I will give you something that will speed the process of fully uncovering the power of your will." Lady Red turned away and walked back upstairs to her desk. Out of a drawer, she produced a large, red tattoo which depicted flames, as solid as crystal and sat delicately in her delicate hands. Walking back down to her waiting guests, she presented the solid tattoo to Flika.

"Place this on your back and your wishes will become your power." Flika looked at the tattoo. It was about as wide as her back.

"Can I use it on another part of my body? I don't want wings." Flika asked.

"Of course." Doctor Red smiled. She split the tattoo in half but a silver shard broke off as well. Looking at it, Madam Red picked it up and closed her eyes. The silver shard grew larger and became a copy of the original mark. Madam Red touched it against Allen's back and it disappeared.

"If you want to look for your friend, you need this as well." She said.

Turning around, the older woman placed the two halves of the tattoo onto Flika's calves. They also disappeared on contact.

A man came bustling in with two boxes and a bag similar to something which was strapped around the waist. It was small and compact but the man dropped both boxes into the tiny bag. He handed the bag to Madam Red and in turn, to Flika.

"When you go to the Underworld, be wary of everything there. Wear what I prepared for you and be prepared to do whatever you must to get the information." Warned the woman with the red eyes.

The lights blacked out, then Allen and Flika found themselves outside in front of their motorcycles.

"Well, that was weird," said Flika after a pause.

"Let's take a look at what she gave us." They sat down on the curb and opened the bag. Allen stuck his hand into the bag and frowned. He reached deeper and deeper until his entire arm was in the bag. He finally drew out one of the boxes, which had been dropped in by the man. Opening it, there were some pretty interesting things inside.

There was some sort of black half coat with an extremely high collar, one made to purposely cover one's face and the hem stopping short of my ribs, exposing by midriff. There was also a pair of black, leather shorts_. Jeez, what was that lady thinking? Making me look like a skank if I wore those things_. Flika thought. There were also black stockings with straps to hold them up. Long, black, knee-length, laced-up boots and a thick (wow, black) leather belt with several pockets and a latch to specifically hold a whip. Obsidian bracelets and such accessories were also produced from the bag. Flika felt slightly self-conscious about wearing those sorts of items, but she remembered that first entering the world portals had turned me into a skinny, typical bitch-looking girl. After that thought, she felt a bit better but I still had no idea about what we needed to do with these things.

For Allen, they found a sleeveless, black shirt, a sable mask in the shape of a lower jaw of a skeleton monster, a raven coloured bike jacket with a hood and jet-black slacks. Black converse were also included in the boxes.

There were also another set of boxes that both Flika and Allen couldn't open, even by tearing at them (they were made of cardboard). They just left them in there for later.

A clock rang nearby, making Allen and Flika look up and stare at each other aghast. They were late and they were supposed to meet the rest of the group a quarter of an hour ago. They quickly stuffed the contents back into the impossibly tiny bag and while Flika shoved it down her shirt, they drove off through the streets and with some tricky manoeuvres, made it to the centre before the board closed for entries. They hurriedly signed in and rushed into the waiting room.

"Where were you? I was so worried!" Squealed Keshi, slamming into Flika as she walked through the door.

"Sorry, we were held up by some people. They won't be troubling us anymore, though." Flika said with a smile. The rest of the group sweat-dropped. Not only was she lying through her teeth, she was scaring her team mates and also intimidating all the people around her who were eavesdropping.

A soft ding rang through the waiting room and a soft, cool voice of a woman announced: "_will the following teams enter the black door in the waiting room." _Then the voice rattled off a couple of team names and suddenly, Keshi grabbed my arm.

"That's our team: Korosu Kaze." She said as she dragged Flika over to the door.

"Wait, Death Wind?" Flika searched back into her limited vocabulary of Japanese words in her head. "That's the best you can come up with? I'll think of something for our team later." She said.

They opened the door and inside were tubes with platforms numbered from one to fifteen. Korosu Kaze was told to stand in numbers one to seven. Allen, Kaz, Flika, Zefie, Rio, Keshi and Kiru all stood in their respective pods while the rest of the other team filed into the room. They were dressed in simple clothes, rather unremarkable up to the point where they all bore black tattoos over their bodies.

(A/N: from now on, I'm calling the entire team Kaze)

Kaze glared at them.

They glared back.

There was a noise like an air horn and they all shot upwards at an alarming rate. Emerging onto a stage styled like a giant chess board, the crowd roared at the two opposing teams who had popped out on the opposite side of the 'board'. Zefie had popped out onto a floating chair and had a new addition to her costume. All of them did. Chains adorned their throats like a sick joke and they were all connected to Zefie's choker-chain collar. A huge screen set on the roof showed their profile pictures and personal information. The majority of the crowd booed Kaze; they were a new team after all.

The surly faces of the different teams on the screen changed to a countdown.

_5, 4, 3, 2, Start!_

**This chapter took a while... about 6 months to completely finish it I think. Well, I lost interest in it but it was pretty good in the end.**


	10. Chapter 9

**Hey again. Wow, chapter 9. This is the furthest I've ever gotten while writing a book... Please enjoy! ^_^ -o)**

Chapter 9

Zefie focused and the chains shattered easily under her willpower. The other team on the other hand were slightly slow on releasing their 'pets'. The second the chains snapped, the mobile members of Kaze charged forwards, clashing with their opponents just as their chain snapped.

Allen and Keshi swung their weapons up and over to try and crush their opponents. Keshi's halberd blade sank deep into her opponent's shoulder, slicing a deep gash into his arm leaving rippling darkness hovering over the fatal wound. Allen missed altogether and was sliced in the side by his opponent, her knives glinting in the artificial light, illuminating her devilish smile.

Rio's opponent was finished quite quickly. Rio threw a couple of knives and the huge colossus of a man he was facing had all his ligaments in his limbs sliced and was immobile on the ground, blood oozing. A great roar went up in the stands when the colossus passed out.

Kiru was having a little trouble with her opponent. She had gained needle wounds, the points sticking out of her back and shoulders like a porcupine, holding Benihime down near her ankle. Her opponent however, had gash wounds in her legs and a broken arm.

Kaz had already finished off his opponent. Electricity crackled around his gun and it disappeared back into his jacket. His opponent dead on the floor before him. Teenage girls in the stand swooned at him and cheered for him, their allegiances changed.

Allen clutched his side while his opponent taunted him.

"How're you gonna swing that toy of yours now, hey, kid?" the fat man before him danced around nimbly, betraying his form and agility.

'Wasn't planning on swinging it in the first place, dumbass." Allen grinned evilly and hoisted his wrapped up weapon onto his shoulder. Bullets spat out of his weapon and embedded themselves into the fat man before Allen.

After a couple of seconds of maniacal laughing, drowning out his victim's screams, Allen calmed down and put his now torn weapon down onto the ground.

"Couldn't have missed Rolly-Polly even if I tried." He said aloud, his voice picked up, and then transmitted to the crowd. The crowd both cheered and jeered Allen, but all he did was wink and stick out his tongue.

Kiru had been ganged up on and was desperately trying to avoid both needles and knives after Allen's previous opponent had swapped targets. A great pillar of fire roared up into the heavens behind Kiru and she felt the searing ruin it conveyed through the air. The pillar came roaring over to Kiru's fight and swallowing up the projectiles launched at Kiru. Through the flames walked Flika, her eye ablaze, Haineku in her hands.

She looked very pissed off. (A/N: you think?) Raising Haineku, the column of fire turned into a snake/basilisk and raced after Kiru's former opponents. The two unfortunate contestants vainly tried to avoid the attack but were consumed with fire. The column slowed and stopped, turning into a pillar of ash. All was silent in the coliseum. There was nothing but a blackened stain of Flika's previous opponent on the floor.

A huge cry rose up to the huge ceiling as the crowd cheered for their new team. Flika collapsed with a soft flutter of clothes and hair. Kaz was first to catch Flika before she hit the ground. The rest of Kaze rushed over to Flika's unmoving body.

She wasn't breathing.

**Cliffie here as well. Otherwise, it'll sound like the end of the story. Many more interesting things will happen so keep in touch! ^^ Sorry this chapter was so short but I wanted every battle to be a single chapter each. **

**Luv yas**

**Rugiku~**


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10! Amazing. Btw, if I suddenly change things in my story like names or descriptions, please tell me by reviewing and commenting! Thnx! ^^**

Chapter 10-Kaz

Kiru came over, ignoring her wounds while the crowd was riled up by the commentator. The girl/porcupine checked her friend's vitals and then (unexpectedly) slapped Flika hard across the face, dislodging her eye patch. The comatose girl's face flushed a bright pink and I realised she was breathing again. Flika's eyes opened and she sat up. The rest of Team Korosu Kaze stepped back sharply. Her eyes had turned into the fiery depths of hell.

"What?" she asked sharply. She blinked and then the inhuman colour disappeared and she reached up to re-fasten her eye patch. Kaze relaxed but we all would get some explanation out of her later, not in front of the crowd.

The crowd roared as they saw Flika unhurt. The commentator congratulated us and then directed the team to the other side's remaining captain.

Their captain was dead. Metal thorns had inexplicably sprung up and stabbed the captain after the rest of her team died.

"They all go down together, huh?" murmured Flika. As we approached the charred chair (it hadn't escaped the fire snake either).

Kiru and Zeffie shivered while the rest of Kaze ignored her.

"Oh, yeah. Why did our chains shatter before the other team did?" Asked Kiru suddenly.

I stood to the side, finger tapping my chin as I came up with an explanation for her.

"Think of the power which we use to power our weapons. A normal person couldn't even lift these objects if they haven't been through the World Tunnel." I started but then Flika cut me off.

"The World Tunnel? Is that what you call the weird space area when we jumped into the portal?"

I sighed. "Yes, anyway, when you enter the World Tunnel, you either vaporise or your... spirit, I guess you could call it that, your spirit keeps you alive. Each spirit power is different and is completely unique. It gives you different powers and combinations of powers. For you, Kiru, it's super-strength and an unknown. For Flika, It's unknown and creation and control of fire. For Allen, it's super-strength and metal, Keshi is super-speed and dark shadows, Rio is super-agility and unknown and Zefie is both unknown."

"What about you?" asked Flika.

"Me? It's ice and really good instinct." I said coolly. Behind me, I heard Allen mutter something to Zefie.

"Explains a lot, doesn't it?" Allen looked meaningfully at my white hair, ice-blue eyes and pale skin before he saw me glaring at him.

Honestly, does that guy have any manners?

"Answering your question, the higher your spirit which is induced by a strong will, the stronger the force is. The chains are specifically made to break under a certain amount of spirit pressure. That's how Zefie, who looks weak, can gain the upper hand with a strong will and releasing her 'pets' before the other team does."

Zefie and Kiru started bickering with me at the same time which induced a sharp, painful spike in my headache which was starting to come on after the round had finished.

"What do you mean by weak?!"

"What do you mean by pets?!"

Rubbing my head, I growled deep in my throat. It was automatic so I was used to the quick steps away from me. Allen chuckled as Zefie hid behind Flika and Kiru backed away, her hands held up in a 'calm down' gesture.

I smiled apologetically, lowering my hand and then I said, "Let's go somewhere else. I don't want to spend another second on this stage."

We walked to the middle of the giant chess board and waited. Suddenly, the panels we were standing on lowered and we waved to the crowd. While we were being lowered, Kiru fainted. Blood loss was the cause, the doctors told us later on. We were patched up and sent to another room. A couple of minutes later, Kiru was wheeled in on a bed.

Inside the room were a couple of beds, one for each of us. We fell onto the fluffy mattresses with a sigh. Well I did, but I fell asleep from exhaustion as soon as my head hit the pillow, so I wouldn't know...

Crap, I'm getting soft.

**Kaz isn't really that weak. There is a reason for him sleeping all the time but that's for another time! ^^**


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11- Allen

When we made sure Kiru was alright, we relaxed. I settled down into a hideously plush chair and I watched Kaz stagger over to one of the beds and collapse onto it. Zefie and Rio sat together on the floor and played with one of the toys which had been stacked in the corner. The room was about fifteen by twenty meters and were filled with various things from beds to a coffee table and armchairs. A platter of fruit had been put on the coffee table with a stack of books next to it. Flika was fidgeting in a similar armchair I was in and Keshi had picked up an apple and started eating it. Suddenly, Keshi whirled around and hurled the half-eaten fruit at the door punching a shadowy, smoking hole in the thick oak wood. The tiny man who had come to collect us again for the next battle cringed behind the crack in the doorway.

The tiny man stuttered and mumbled before Keshi shrieked at him, "Speak up, old fart! I can't hear you!"

The man jumped and turned a fine shade of white and said rather quickly, "You're up... left, right, right. Plate... on... go... now...." then he fell down in a dead faint.

"I'm guessing it means 'we're up next, go left down the hall, then right and then another right. Stand on the plate and we have to go now'?" said Kaz, who had woken up after the screaming. He looked pissed off so I didn't goad him. Too bad. He always had a funny reaction when he just wakes up.

We got up and realised something.

"What are we going to do with Kiru? She's still out." Zefie asked, voicing our thoughts.

"I guess just leave her here and win the next battle?" I suggested.

The rest of Kaze nodded and walked out the door. I hoisted up the unconscious man, pants dripping with I don't want to know and dropped him on one of the empty beds, then shut the door behind me.

I caught up with the rest of the group and walked next to Kaz, Keshi leading the way. I whispered to the pale-haired adolescent next to me, "Why's Keshi so mad? Does she have issues or has she just got her monthlies?"

Takoza looked at me sceptically and raised his right eyebrow. "I think it's rude to talk about that sort of stuff. Besides, why do you care?"

I looked away sharply before bumping into Keshi who had, evidently, heard the entire conversation. Her face was veiled by messy, blonde fringe considering I was a head taller than her.

Before I could ask what was wrong, she slugged me in the face with an almost invisible punch. I went flying through the air before my head made contact with the thin wall and smashed the white-washed barrier.

Standing back up while clutching my forehead as blood poured from the cut on my skull, I saw Keshi stalking away while Kaz and Rio followed her, Kaz chuckling audibly and Flika stood by and laughed her head off while Zefie worried over me asking if I was alright (Of course not! I was punched so hard I made a hole through the wall!).

We walked to the place designated by the tiny man and stood on the plate in the room. After a few seconds, the plate began to rise.

We appeared from the floor in front of dozens of paparazzi, snapping their cameras at our faces, yelling out questions.

"What happened to your head, Allen?"

"Where is Kiru?"

"How do you feel after winning your first battle together as Korosu Kaze?"

We tried to answer as many question as possible at the same time so there was a jumble of words and phrases.

"Kiru is-"

"-in the wall"

"-which was pretty fun and-"

"-punching Allen through-"

"-the floor was"

"-quite interesting..."

Well, that was what I heard... not sure about the rest but judging from the weird expressions, they couldn't be good.

After the barrage of questions, we were escorted to another room. This one was really long and schmancy looking with a long oak table complete with white tablecloth, plates and cutlery neatly set out. Plates of food were placed on the white table cloth but the room was empty. The guy who had escorted us to the room directed us to another smaller room. Inside were showers and plastic bags of clothes labelled each with our names. Flika peeked into one of them and announced that they were clothes that we were going to wear for a dinner party in the other room.

Twenty minutes later, Kaz, Rio and I were stuck in a tuxedo while Flika, Kiru, Zefie and Keshi were in poufy dresses. Dress assistants whirled into the room and after their maelstrom of nonsensical words and conversations accompanied with makeup powders and (*shudder*) hair combs, we were stranded in the middle of the room looking ridiculous.

One look at each other, we cracked up laughing and went to the mirror to tone down our makeup by three quarters (It was that much makeup...).

It turns out that everyone aside from Flika and Kiru were terrible at makeup artistry so they ended up doing all the work.

Sitting in a chair, I noticed that the hair stylist had attempted to change Kaz's hair colour and style. There was an argument lasting about half an hour over whether or not the hair stylist should dye his hair another colour or dye it at all.

Flika was in a pink dress and I could tell she hated it. The murderous intent leaking out of her aura was so easy to pick up, you were practically breathing it in. It was big and poufy, the pink silk was bunched up near her right waist with a bow and the white lace underneath was frilly and uncomfortable looking. The corset she was wearing was laced with pearls and roses and was framed by black lace. She wore black high heels and her hair was left out only it was curled slightly to frame her face. Her eye patch was still in place while her stylist fretted over what to do to cover it. Kiru suddenly suggested a hat and then the stylist whirled off into a secret room I hadn't noticed before while Kaz and Kiru laughed at Flika's distraught face.

Kiru was wearing a sea green dress similar to Flika's. She wore white gloves instead of Flika's black ones and her hair was let out to cascade down her back in ringlets. There was something I didn't notice on the left side of her face though. It was a makeup sticker thing in the shape of a raindrop. On closer inspection of the other girls, they all had a similar one as well.

Zefie had one on her left cheek in the shape of a white bird (her dress was white), Keshi had one in the shape of a black moon(her dress was purple and black) and Flika had a pink rose painted onto her face.

I think you get the point.

Anyway, the absent stylists decided to make themselves present again, whirling back in a cloud of overly powerful deodorant and perfume. They set a large hat similar to a sun hat on her head. Only it was adorned with roses and pearls (three guesses for what colour it was).

Flika took it off her head and stared at it.

"It's pink."

"Yes, but it hides that eye patch! The roses do that."

"Oh my, it looks ravishing..."

And our stylists broke down into a gibbering heap of compliments to one another.

I caught Zefie's eyes and rolled mine.

Zefie cracked up laughing.

Flika glared daggers at me.

We all stood when a man similar to before (you know, the guy Keshi made piss his pants) quivered out a request to enter the main hall.

I sighed and we filed up to walk into (literally) anti-social Hell.

**Ha, ha. I really liked this chapter and making up the dresses. I actually have no idea where the guy who Keshi (it's you Faji-chan!!!!) made piss his pants came from... oh yeah, since Faji-chan is the only one reading this online at the moment (probably) I really want someone else out there on FF to review and give me your opinion... yeah... no one is going to get this message if its the 11****th**** chapter...**

***depressed***


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12- Zefie

The only thing that really stuck out in the dinner party were all the pretty dresses, the mountains of food and Keshi getting so worked up, she threw (yes, threw) some pervert/hooker guy into a bowl of punch.

There were so many people like that in the dinner party. One tried to hit on me! Seriously, how desperate do you have to get to start flirting with a twelve year old girl?! Anyway, Rio chucked him into a toilet, well, through the wall, _then_ into the toilet.

Everyone gave us heaps of space after that...

Mind you, Rio was a half the size of that guy...

I saw Allen and Kaz repeatedly save Keshi, Flika and Kiru from other creeps during the dinner and at the end of the banquet, there were rumours going on about Kaz and Allen... enough said...

Yeah, well the dinner was pretty hectic.

There were a couple of fat people who literally crawled over the table to get to food and then couldn't stop shoving food into their mouths. Food was flung everywhere and amidst the chatter and shrieks of 'you got –insert food/crap here- on me!' there were musicians. Yep, really bad musicians.

There was the lead with two heads. One played saxophone and the other sang.

Neither head did either job very well.

There was a four-armed piano player who was definitely asleep. Creepy funeral-ish sounding music came out of his keyboard as he played.

The last of the three men playing the four man band played the ukulele. Let's just leave it at that.

Once Kaz was the one who needed saving when a drunk guy came up to him with two other of his bodyguards and surrounded him with his back to a wall. This was in the corridor when Kaz went out for a breath of fresh air. I happened to see him when Rio dragged me over to see the entire incident.

The cliché happened. Sweet talking and Kaz not buying it, threats, yada, yada, you get the point. Enter Kiru and Flika. They actually came with us but they wanted to save Kaz, I guess.

"Oh, here's your boyfriend Kiru!"

Both Kiru and Kaz glared daggers at her but Flika ignored both of them and skipped lightly to Kaz and skilfully dragged him out from between the two henchmen. Flika turned around and then froze.

Uh, oh.

Still keeping her smile on her face, she lightly shoved Kaz in the back towards Kiru, both faces with puzzlement on them.

"Go on, I'll be okay."

"but-" Kaz and Kiru started at the same time, but Flika's eye opened a slit and glared at them so scarily, that look could have punched through steel.

"I said, go on."

Kaz finally got the gist of what had happened and walked briskly towards Kiru. Kiru stuttered some words but was silenced by a quiet whispered sentence in her ear. The second his lips left her ear, she turned a ghostly white and shot a glance at the still figures of the three men behind Flika and the young woman herself before she was pulled through the door, shut the door behind them. It was then that Kiru and Kaz found Rio and I crouching at the door.

Kaz roughly dragged both of us away from the door and gathered Allen and Keshi and we all stood in the furthest wall away from Flika's location.

If you want the details, read Flika's entry...

Let's just say there was an explosion and... yeah... excessive screaming is all I'm going into detail with here...

After the dinner party, we all changed back into (sort of) normal clothes.

I was wearing an off-white sleeveless shirt with brown gloves, sort of like mini work gloves that builders wear. The shorts I was wearing had deep black bracers dangling from the sides and long, black boots that reached my knees with even longer off-white socks reaching midway up my thigh.

Kaz was wearing a white, leather jacket, its silver zip shone in the artificial light. He had navy blue slacks and a black belt lazily looped around his waist and the end dangled limply from his belt loop. I guess his stylist's theme was ice (I wonder why?) so his shirt was patterned like sun shining off facets of broken ice. Strips and triangles were coloured pure white and the same light blue you get when you look through solid, frosted ice in really cold places with hints of deep, bottomless blue. I hadn't noticed it before but only one of his ears was pierced and he had probably swapped his normal transportation earring for a silver cross with the same gem, but smaller, in the middle. A platinum dog tag dangled shamelessly out on his shirt.

Allen was pretty much the opposite of Kaz. His leather rider jacket was a traditional black and his shirt was coloured like heated metal. Swirls of molten red and yellow had hints of mercury silver and the colours raced along the length of the cloth. He had black slacks with a silver belt and a chain dangling from his belt loops. His left ear was pierced and he also had changed his earring. Now it was a silver claw with a transportation jewel encasing the nail. Another dog tag was on him as well.

Thinking about it now, I remembered the choker Kiru gave me and I grabbed it from my special backpack the size of a small cat: it was bottomless, pretty much (I once found a street light inside it for some odd reason...).

Rio was still in the same clothes as before. While we were waiting for Kiru, Flika and Keshi to come out of their dressing rooms, a bolt of inspiration hit me. I grabbed everyone's dog tags and chokers but was stopped by a meaningful stare from Rio. I sent a reassuring message to his mind and let him in on my epiphany.

A slightly feral grin lit up his face.

He was definitely happy.

**Finally, it's Zefie's turn to have a say. A little giveaway for Zefie's background if you caught it and it may or may not play a crucial role in the story.**

**Rio won't have a turn because I want him remain secret. ^_^ I keep forgetting previous details so if I write something incorrect, just review and tell me.**

**Coolies!**

**Enjoy!**

**Btw, I don't think there is a very regular schedule for chapter releases so I'll try to make it one chapter each fortnight and I am sort of open to bribes...**


	14. Chapter 13

Chapter 13- Flika

When Kiru had been dragged out of the corridor, I slowly turned around.

"Who was the one who groped me?"

Drunk, puzzled expressions faced me. Then, hesitantly, the head honcho who was harassing Kaz raised his hand.

Wow, they really were drunk... who admits to groping a fourteen year old girl?

When the leader raised his hand, the gorillas with him raised theirs as well.

That just goes beyond stupidity.

I reached up to take off my hat and threw it behind me. There, it wouldn't become a charred piece of charcoal.

"You're gonna pay." I growled. "I cannot believe I am going to waste my time on these idiots!" I added as an afterthought.

Finally recognising the threat, all three fully grown men pulled out guns and aimed them at my head.

They might have guns, but I have the fires of hell on my side.

The black eye patch fluttered down through the air until I caught it before it hit the ground. I turned away from the charred remains on the floor while putting on my eye patch and stooped to pick up my hat, then walked through the newly created hole-in-the-wall-for-a-window back into the main hall.

-_end of dinner night, in Flika's dressing room (no, get your mind out of the gutter)_-

I was in a black, skin-tight, long-sleeve, turtleneck top and black leggings with black ballet flats. My stylist had made me wear a loose, red top that was wrapped up on the front like a Japanese kimono and was tied at the waist and halfway down my forearms. My headband and eye patch had not changed while an orange scarf was draped over a chair. Rummaging in my old clothes (the ones before the dinner party) I fished out the tiny waist bag from in my shirt and rummaged inside it again. I felt boxes and then something leather. I guessed something had fallen out of one of the boxes so I emptied the bag onto the floor. I sorted through the mess of cardboard, I realised that all the boxes were still closed and the leather object I had felt was a cylinder the size of a phone. It had a lens in one side so I set it on the floor. A quiet beep sounded and a hologram of Doctor Red came into existence.

"Hi, Flika. Do you need help on anything?" the hologram asked.

"Madam Red?!" I couldn't suppress the surprised shriek I emitted when she popped into existence.

"Yes, now what do you want. Ask anything, I can do it." The hologram said.

There was a question that was nagging at me for a while.

"Allen and I can't break away from Korosu Kaze and what are the extra clothes for?" I asked.

"Well, you definitely need extra help on your mission and any more than three people will arouse suspicion. The third person you need is your friend Keshi. Have I also mentioned that I am a professional at staging deaths?"

I took a moment to absorb all of the information Madam Red had given me.

"Wait, Keshi?!"

"Yep."

A stretch of silence hung between the two people in the room (more like one...).

"So the only way to break from Korosu Kaze is to die?" I asked to fill in the silence.

Madam Red's eyes became sad.

"Yes."


	15. Chapter 14

**Finally, my faithful reader(s), it is Chapter 14. This is the first Keshi POV chapter. ;) **

Chapter 14- Keshi

Ah... It really feels nice after changing clothes. Especially ones you've just worn to a hectic dinner party with an exploding corridor and flying food.

The typical hoodie, singlet and baggy pants had been swapped for a dark, one-piece skirt decorated with sequins. I guess the theme was sequins because everything my stylist had left me was covered in sequins so I systematically got the blade of my halberd and scraped off a couple hundred of the sequined garments.

Hey, I had to improvise.

At this point, Kiru came to check in on me, so she ended up doing the finishing touches on my clothes. I found navy stockings and black boots with a short, black coat with (you guessed it!) sequins on them. The coat and boots only had a couple of fake crystals embedded on them and (even better) the stockings were just plain opaque. I did up my hair with Kiru's help into two pigtails and then shooed Kiru out of my room.

I was putting on the accessories (it was earrings and a choker if you really want to know) when I spotted a hidden door in the wall. I hadn't noticed it until then because it was painted the same colour as the walls.

I crept over to it and tried the handle. It didn't budge. I stood back up, thinking whether or not to pick the lock when I finally realised the problem. The first time, I tried pulling the door. This time I _pushed_ the door.

It swung open.

I peered in and saw cardboard boxes strewn everywhere. They were all plain but they all definitely had clothes in them. I heard two soft voices that I recognised; Flika and Madame Red.

Let's just say that I've had some encounters with the doctor before.

I swung the door open wider and Flika whirled around, her whip in hand. When she saw it was me, she relaxed but eyes were cast downwards.

"Keshi... I really need to talk to you." She said.

She explained to me why there was a mess in her room, why she was in the Midnight Games in the first place, her life before the Games, her conversation with Allen at the shopping mall and her meeting with Madame Red.

"Oh, and nice change of clothes." She added as an afterthought.

"Thanks... So, you want me to join you and Allen, fake my death and join you on what may be a wild goose chase all for a school friend?" I replied.

"When you put it that way, it doesn't sound so glamorous and we're also looking for Allen's relative or something..." she said with an uncertain tone of voice.

I tilted my head with a thoughtful expression. I was already all for going with them but I wanted to see the hopeful expression on Flika's face.

"Oh, alright, Doll Face." I said, using my new nickname for her. Flika cheered and had a mini celebration.

"Oh, yeah, here's your clothes, I guess." She bent down to sort through the cardboard boxes until she found a set and gave them to me. I opened them and we peered inside.

My clothes were really simple.

I mean really simple.

It consisted of a motorbike helmet. It was a glossy black with purple streak but it seemed to absorb all the light and had no reflection. The clothes consisted of a turtleneck sleeveless shirt with a leather rider jacket with a silver and purple design of bat wings on the back. Plain, black, skinny jeans and black, leather boots were also in the box.

We hurriedly crammed the clothes back into the box when Allen came calling. I quickly told Allen that I would be helping them find prisoners on the black market. He didn't mind so as Flika walked out of my room, I quickly apologised for punching him earlier.

"You owe me one, Keshi." He muttered after accepting my apology.

"What took you so long?" Kiru smiled from the back of the sofa she was leaning on. Kaz was sitting on the same sofa so it appeared that she was reading over his shoulder at the book on the boy's lap.

Kaz stood and brushed himself off. He walked over to Zefie and handed his book over to her. She grabbed it with thanks and stuffed it into her backpack.

Kiru was in a white dress shirt and 18th-19th Century-esque grey pants with black bracers. Leather boots, a choker and curly, re-dyed hair (it was back to her original colour: brown) completed her picture. Suddenly, Rio and Zefie snatched everyone's choker/dog tag and ran out of the door saying "they'd be back".

And so, we settled down to wait.

After about an hour, the kids came charging back into the room, leaving the door ajar to embarrass a spinning man like the ones you see in cartoons when some other character runs past them really fast. After the man had collapsed on the floor in dizziness, I paid attention to Zefie and her verbal diarrhoea.

"... and the guy did something to the tags and (blah, blah, blah) ... put them on! Now we're a team!" Zefie finished (sorry, I wasn't listening).

I glanced at the tags and saw in fine writing, 'Korosu Kage'. On the back were all of our names stamped into the metal.

"How do you like it, Keshi?" asked Zefie, her aqua fringe falling cutely into her big, green eyes.

I smiled and gently ruffled her shorter hair.

"I think it's a great idea."

Flika sighed. "You should have waited until I changed our name to a better one." She said exasperatedly while looking at her choker tag.

"What happens if we don't like your name?" asked Allen.

"Then you'll just have to live with it!" retorted Flika.

The ensuing argument was too boring to recount so I'll skip it.

There was a groan outside on the floor as the new chauffer ushered us out of the room and into another tube room.

We stood on the metal platforms and waited. I studied the floor plate and tried figuring out what the terrain would be. Last time my plate was black while Kiru, who was next to me was standing on a white one. This time, it was just plain steel.

I guess Allen's gonna have fun with this stage.

**Next chapter will be a battle scene and I'm sorry for the crappy action scenes... TT^TT I'm writing this at midnight on a school night... (-.-);**


	16. Chapter 15

Chapter 15- Flika

The other team filed in and we did our stupid staring match again.

They were all wearing capes, in fact, they looked so ridiculous, Allen cracked up laughing when they walked through the door.

Soon enough, there was an air horn sound and we shot upwards at an alarming pace. I was flung harder than in the previous game and fell hard on my backside on a chair. I recognised the chair as the same one Zefie sat in the time before.

Looking out at the battlefield, it was covered in pipes and wires like the inside of a duct. At the corners of the 50 x 50 field were windmills similar to wind turbines back home but the ceiling was wreathed in dark clouds, lightning lighting up behind the clouds.

I finally understood what the wind turbines resembled as well: lightning rods.

Chains clinked around our necks as the crowd was yet again encased in a protective glass and screaming their heads off for their respective teams as the commentator shouted out bet rates and our names and information.

I realised one potentially fatal problem.

"How do you break the chains?" I shrieked as the starting sound went off. Our opponent's chains shattered as Kaze stared in shock at me.

"Um... think of something that you really want to do!" Yelled Allen as he fended off bullets from the other team.

_Uh... something that I want to do... _ Find Rita.

The chains around my team's neck shattered with such force the splinters went flying towards the glass protecting the audience the shards cracking the protective sheet raising cries of alarm from the spectators.

I stared at my feet, remembering why I was here in the first place, how far I would go to see that dream come true and all of the preparations done for just a couple of people.

Glancing up, I saw several of the tubes in the floor had broken and flames were leaking out onto the floor.

Allen seemed most at home in this environment, I mean, he didn't even need his weapon anymore.

With a flick of his fingers, metal wires reared up like snakes and wrapped themselves around ankles and weapons until none of the other team could move. The rest had wrapped around the team leader and squeezed until he fainted.

The rest of Kaze had been fooling around or weren't bothered to do anything and probably think Allen was having way too much fun to interrupt.

The commentator: The winners are again, Korosu Kaze. Their win streak up to two!

I jumped out of the seat and ran up to the rest of my team.

"What happened? I wasn't watching." I asked Kaz.

"Well, as the other team was running across the field lightning hit two of the lightning rods and vaporised most of them. Allen only took out one who was miraculously still alive and the team leader." answered Kaz.

"Better than standing by and doing nothing but jumping when lightning hit the ground." Allen shot over his shoulder.

"I don't get it, Allen. How come you're not a shrivelled piece of charcoal now?" asked Zefie.

"He's just like a lightning rod so the electricity doesn't affect him. It's better for us 'cause the lightning bolt will hit him instead of us." answered Kaz.

Another argument ensued and we returned to our living quarters: Zefie's apartment.

Later on Allen, Keshi and I reluctantly agreed to a plan that would split us from Korosu Kaze in three months time.

Why three months and not the next battle?

We needed funds…

.;

**Yea, this crap ending is just to get the story moving a bit since in my opinion, it's moving at a snail's pace.**

**^^;**


	17. Chapter 16

Chapter 16- Kiru

_**Three Months Later**_

"Hey Flika, don't doze off like that!" I exclaimed as I shook Flika's shoulder. The red-haired girl looked up in shock and apologised with a smile.

"Sorry, just thinking of stuff," she said.

"What kinda stuff?" I asked in curiosity.

"Ah, this battle. You know, whether we'll win or not."

I laughed. "I think we know what the outcome will be. I mean, we've made a team win streak of 52. I think we'll win this time round. This team is only level 24. We'll trump them for sure!"

The Midnight Games were running on win streaks now and changed the rules to:

You can win by making the enemy's leader pass out.

Your team is ranked by level and your level is determined by the number of streaks you have.

No 'secret weapons' such as foreign monsters or black market items are allowed to be used but players can use a drug called Destreza.

The prize money you get is based on how flashy the battle is and how much you impress the crowd and judges.

Destreza is a drug produced in every world and is harnessed to enhance strength and skills of a single person for five minutes. There are no side effects currently known so was deemed safe to use one month ago for contestants in the Midnight Games.

It can only be described as a rush of power, almost like a mix of Red Bull, V and Vodka all together coursing through your veins.

This is what we are injected with at the beginning of each battle.

We all stood at our tubes. I looked over at everyone and I realised, we were no longer the skinny individuals at the beginning of Korosu Kaze; in the last three months, we had all grown up. Kaz, Allen and Rio had grown taller like beanstalks. Rio was now taller than Zefie who also had a bit of a growth spurt. The female part of Kaze had grown taller (but less than the boys) and prettier... Let's just keep it at that or I'll start sounding bi. We had also changed our clothes and hair colour to suit our tastes much more like 15-year-olds (save Zefie who was still 12).

All except Flika who was still 14.

"Hey, what's the date today?" I asked Kaze.

"Uh, the 2nd of May." answered Kaz. At the date, Flika started from her trance of staring at the other team.

"That's my birthday!" she exclaimed.

"Really? Happy Birthday Flika!" said Allen.

"Happy Birthday"

"Congrats on reaching 15 years of age"

"We should go shopping for presents later as a celebration for winning and your birthday."

"lucky… (Happy birthday, you're lucky)" murmured Rio. (A/N His first word! I feel like a mother… /;)

Flika smiled at Rio but his face fell and looked at her plate then nodded as the start horn went off and we were catapulted onto the field.

This time we were on a field of clouds. It was like we were standing on the doorstep to Heaven.

There was still a floating chair with me perched on it like a doll.

One of the enemies pointed a finger at Rio and shrieked something unintelligible and something about him murdering his brother, The Goliath (who is he?).

I shrugged and the start sound went off. The chains shattered and Zefie promptly disappeared in a flash of light blue. We finally found out her abilities; they were super speed and what appeared to resemble wind and light together.

Rio's hands and feet blurred as he ran through the clouds, scoring hits against our opponents until the Goliath's brother came crashing through and tried to run over the young ninja.

Of course Rio evaded in time but was separated from Kaze's main fighting group. We fought in a pack for safety, ya know?

Gripping the edge of the strong, plastic egg the seat was in, I leaned forwards in fear for Rio. I poured more spirit in the form of fear into the chains and it transformed into physical strength for my friends.

The ball of revenge-with-a-consciousness tried cannoning into Rio again but ended up falling off the edge of the ring, his revenge unfinished. Allen, watching all of this cracked up laughing but was cut of sharply with a sickening thud of a metal ball-and-chain connecting with his skull.

His skull caved in, the red blood mixing with his bronze hair, his body weakly supporting the ruined bone. Allen's body slumped to the ground and tilted over the edge of cloud, falling from the stairway to heaven.

It was certain: he was dead.

There was silence in the arena. The first death after 52 straight wins for Korosu Kaze.

There was a long, horrible shriek echoing around the ring and I realised, I was the one screaming, tears from my face splattering onto the plastic I was clutching.

The arena went dark.

Clouds rumbled and turned alarmingly dark purple and grey. From above, the clouds opened up and started to rain and soon, I realised that I was the one causing this. Turning around, Kaz grinned at me.

"Thanks Kiru for giving me the water. Don't worry, no one else will die. I promise." he said then turned around then raised his hands. The temperature dropped to definitely below zero and I instantly started shivering.

Zefie flickered back into the visible spectrum and stared up at the sky. Realising what Kaz was about to do, she flashed over to Rio and dragged him away from the darkening circle of arena until they were teetering against the steep drop of clear sky.

Calling out, Kaz ordered Flika to cover for me because he couldn't move during his special attack if the enemy tried to attack the team leader (or King regardless of gender). He then ordered Keshi to herd all of the enemies into the ring of dark clouds.

The other team had realised what Kaz was about to do at that point so started aiming for Kaz and I to finish off the game before anyone else got killed.

Well, that was the understatement of the century.

I felt a slight pressure behind me and realised someone had snuck around to attack from behind.

I called out to Flika because Kings couldn't fight. She wheeled around and jumped over and behind the assailant and roundhouse kicked him into the death trap of clouds.

Now, the problem with Flika is that she will sacrifice everything for her friends and team mates, even her orders.

The assailant had trouble getting back up, unsure where to put his hands in the white fluff. Flika landed on his head, grinding it into the dirt… er… cloud…. To be exact. She raised her right hand and lashed the person beneath her with such ferocity she broke a couple of ribs and the bone showing through the bleeding flesh. The resulting sound made even the audience wince.

I can't deny it. Flika is the most sadistic and brutal out of all of us. Even the guys know when to stop punishment but… I think Flika doesn't know that sort of stuff. The resulting problem with her brutality, it causes her to forget about everything.

At that time, Kaz had finished storing up power and screamed at Flika and Keshi to run. Keshi saw that Flika was too preoccupied and dived for the other girl, tackling her to the edge of the circle. There was a rough shove at the base of my chair, a flash of white and then silence. Even the audience went silent.

There was a perfect disk of ice and snow about fifty centimetres thick; in some parts coloured clear, white and frosty blue. In front of me was where Flika and Keshi had dived towards.

Instead of two figures getting up and starting an argument, I saw a single arm lying in a puddle of oozing blood. Only Keshi's arm had made it out of the white carnage to push the floating chair I was sitting on out of the way. I knew it was her arm from her ring. The ice had been so heavy it had sliced the appendage off, it's white surface painted with dripping blood.

Keshi and Flika were dead for sure but what about Kaz?

The finish horn blasted through the freezing air and a great cheer went up in the crowd but I felt empty.

Half of Kaze had been killed in a single battle and as I skidded and slipped over the slab of ice, ignoring the bright red stains dotted around underneath, I arrived at a disk about one metre in diameter.

Inside the icy well lay Kaz, his thin frame lying against the side of his creation. His ivory skin deathly pale as the glare of lights reflected onto Kaz's face, making it so white it almost glowed. Frantically I staggered into the hole and held my chilled hand over his mouth: there was a warm breath, steady and light. I clumsily dragged him onto my shoulder, Rio and Zefie appearing to help. Zefie was half collapsed with tears so Rio was holding both Kaz and Zefie up.

The clouds below us began shaking and the edges began collapsing, falling into the azure blue below.

We ran towards the collapsing edge and then jumped, landing on the suspended super glass that encased the audience.

We watched the icy graveyard of a battlefield sink into the sky as the crowd's roars with the pervading wail of Zefie filled the air.

**Now, do not worry, the story isn't over. This is just the trigger that gets this entire thing going! :P**


	18. Chapter 17

**Okay, while I write this in lashing rain, I've found out that the weather seriously affects my writing skills and what I write. It's pretty interesting, y'know?**

**Sorry I haven't been able to update any of my stories. It's because of my half yearly exams (damn you Quadratics and further Trigonometry! T^T). Anyway, this is actually the most recent chapter I've been working on and have not any extra chapters lined up anymore… T^T**

**Ya know, I think I've been doing my fair share of crying. In one week= 3 years worth of tears… .;**

**Anyway, enjoy this new chappie!**

**Disclaimer: The video I based the house on is owned by Adam Lambert and his song, 'Whataya Want From Me'. Apple products (namely it's Mac) is also owned by Apple… Who'd have known?**

**Any random similarities are owned by their respective owners so please don't send me messages saying I plagiarised something. -.-; **

**Rugiku~**

Chapter 17- Keshi

My entire body felt cold, my eyelids were so heavy it was as if there were weights attached. I slowly cracked an eyelid open to be greeted with a tinted glass. There was a soft trundling and memories slowly floated back to me. The fight, Flika, the crushing weight and then…. nothing?

Then, why am I alive?

Oh, yes. That's right, we decided on a split plan. After all we can't go looking through the Underworld in every realm we enter with the rest of Kaze without them suspecting anything. I eventually sank back into darkness then I awoke again.

A little feeling came into my world with the soft rasp of my breath. I was covered with a soft blanket and Madame Red was peering worriedly into the tinted glass. I finally realised I was looking through the helmet she had given Allen and Flika on their first meeting with the beautiful woman.

Sitting up was a pain. I admit it. With a groan, I forced myself onto my elbows but that was as far as I could get to an upright position. With clumsy fingers, I took off my helmet to breathe fresh air and handed the helmet to Madame Red's long, tapered fingers.

"I had to put you all in your costumes to avoid anyone recognising you," she said. Behind her, Allen and Flika were just waking up and by the haggard looks on their faces, both of them felt as bad as I did.

After a couple of minutes, I was able to stand and saw my reflection in the wall length mirror. I called Allen and Flika over to admire our reflections.

"Hey Allen, how cool do you look?" I said as he came over.

"This coat reminds me of someone… It's someone in a manga I read back in my world…" Flika stared at her reflection as Allen and I argued whether or not he should look in the mirror more often.

"But it looks great on you!" I say.

"So what?"

"Aw… come on. Put up your hood and look like the teenage grim reaper,"

"Ah! Stop that already."

Suddenly Flika blurted out some random name.

"Halibel! Only not so short…."

"Who?" Allen and I finally agreed on the same thing for once.

"Uh…" She sweat-dropped. "Never mind…"

"Okay, is everyone working fine?" Madame Red appeared out of a doorway and I realised we were in an apartment. The room was stylishly furnished with a few voluptuous sofas around a mahogany coffee table. We were previously sleeping on the couches so they were messy with blankets spilling onto the floor. Flika noticed the mess and started to pack up the blankets and stack them on the carpeted floor.

Madame Red finally got us to sit down and she explained the situation.

"You all well and truly died. The results weren't very pretty but now everyone thinks you're dead. The reason why you are alive and sitting in my apartment is because of my medical genius."

"So, how did you do it?" I asked.

Madame Red smiled and said, "I reconstructed Allen's skull (o_o) but don't worry, it's exactly the same as before you died. Flika and Keshi, your bodies were completely destroyed but your left arm was still okay to fix." Both Allen and I sighed in relief but Flika coughed delicately and looked expectantly at the medical genius sitting opposite her.

"You say my entire body was destroyed," Flika started before she was cut off by the Doctor.

"Okay, maybe I was exaggerating a bit. Both your and Keshi's bodies were little more than sludge and meaty pancakes. I reconstructed both of your bodies from your remains." The Doctor then stood without batting an eyelid and asked,

"Anyone want breakfast? I'm making pancakes!"

Flika was a delicate shade of green, Allen shuddered and I felt all of the blood rush out of my head.

The Doctor smiled and cheerily said, "Toast it is, then" and stood to make ready our meal.

After our breakfast we sat around the coffee table again, each with a cup of tea. I was testing my hand, wriggling my fingers and twisting the wrist of my left arm.

"Is it working okay?" asked Madame Red.

I nodded and stopped the testing of my arm. Looking up, I saw that both Flika and Allen were rather apprehensive with their new 'adjustments'. Allen had started the habit of touching the left side of his skull while Flika would look into the floor-length mirror opposite her and sigh. Whether it was from anxiety or relief, she still looked like she needed someone to comfort her.

"Well, down to business."

Flika and Allen stopped their fretting and turned towards me as I paced the floor in front of the coffee table.

"The advantage for 'dying' is that if any of our former teammates ever accidentally see us in another world, our 'reincarnations' would not remember a thing about a previous life. If they do happen to see us, just pretend that you've never seen them in their entire life."

"Well, that's a bit depressing…" said Allen, scratching his head.

"Yeah," I agreed. "Anyway, the first thing we need to do is find out information on the slave's whereabouts." Flika and Allen nodded. Turning to Madame Red, I asked, "Do you have any information on the whereabouts of slave traders?"

Madame Red tapped her chin in thought.

"No, I don't know where the slaves are, but I know a couple of people who might, although, some may be unreliable. Also, if the slave traders get a whiff of someone coming after them, they'll change course. You have to kill the informants, but don't worry; they die all the time so it won't raise any suspicion!"

We were silent for a while until the doctor cleared her throat.

"So, do you want some information on your quarries?"

This immediately perked up both Allen and Flika. They eagerly grabbed the manila files the Doctor handed to them.

Peeking inside Flika's one, I saw a short, rather happy girl in a photo. Her glasses and clothes were dirty and all, but she looked relatively unharmed. When Flika saw the girl, she sighed in relief.

Allen on the other hand, his photo was plucked out from his file and was tucked away into his jacket. He also wouldn't let me look at the file as well, no matter how much I whined.

Finally, Madame Red stood up and walked to a room that looked similar to a yoga/exercise room only hold the exercise machines. It was carpeted with soft, light grey carpet with a window in the wall showing a picket fence behind a hedge and a couple of chickens and a duck pond complete with said animals searching for grubs in the reeds.

We followed her there and stood in the doorway when the doctor told us not to enter the room. Putting her hands together as if in prayer, she stood in the middle of the room. A soft humming filled the air as soft chanting wafted though the room. Around us, the ceiling warped and got slightly higher, the furniture, ornaments and flooring were whisked out from beneath us and were replaced with reed mats, small tables with vases with flowers inside and open walls and circular windows in a Japanese fashion. A large, square table complete with futon popped out of nowhere and settled in the middle of the room.

New rooms appeared out of walls and existing doors shrank into non-existence or shifted around, opening to different rooms.

The humming eventually stopped and we gained the opportunity to ask the doctor what had happened.

"I'm not only skilled in medical arts, I also happen to dabble in magical arts as well. As for what happened, we just moved to another world and I wanted a change in scenery and living style. Seriously, take a look at the garden and house!" The red-eyed lady gestured at the open wall leading out to a timber veranda. The garden looked like it came from a natural heritage site in Japan. A white gravel garden rippled with swirls caressed misshapen rocks with a black, dead tree off to the right. On the left, there were stepping stones onto grass leading off extensively to a screen of bamboo creating something similar to a wall. White pillars supported some of the house while the rest had an over hanging roof and a veranda walkway.

Madame Red took us on the grand tour of her (current) house. She had not one, not two, but _three_ living rooms and they were all styled differently.

The first one was the room we were in when the doctor changed locations. It had tatami mats and rice paper doors that screened the calm rock garden. A brass light hung from the ceiling, illuminating the light green walls.

The second had whitewashed walls and had deep navy blue shelves holding books, files, CD cases and various ornaments and statues. It was lit with electric lights set into the ceiling and was sparsely furnished with a dark blue sofa and matching footrest that could double as another seat. Through the black framed window, there was the bamboo hedge and paving stones leading to a fence and the edge of a chicken coop could be seen if you leaned out to the side. A small, glass office table with an Apple Mac on top sat adjacent to the shelf with a white office chair pushed underneath. Soft, dark blue sofas dotted the rooms atop the white carpet.

The third living room was cream. A wooden rocking chair was in front of a window with a low table complete with a few magazines lying on top. A large, rose red couch sat in front of a huge TV with surround sound speakers. Orange curtains brushed the timber floors.

The kitchen was styled similar to the second living room; dark blue cupboards and bench with a chrome fridge on the wall. The only thing I noticed that there were no bedrooms.

"Ah, I'm not here all the time and can occasionally be out for weeks at a time so I never needed a bedroom. You can all sleep in different living rooms, I guess?" The Doctor awkwardly scratched the back of her head. We looked at each other.

"I want the tatami room." I said quickly.

"I'm in the study room if you want me." Allen commented before walking out.

Flika and I shared a 'what's-he-going-to-need-the-study-for?' look.

"I guess I've got the TV room."

**Halibel is owned by Tite Kubo, the creator of Bleach. Yes, Flika's coat is ****similar ****to Halibel's but there are differences okay? **

**Anyway, this chapter is pretty good right? If you agree, just review 'kaaaaaaaaaaay? Just click on the shitty looking link under the story. I liked it better when it was a button.**

**T^T**

**Hope you liked it!**

**Rugiku~**


	19. Chapter 18

**Okay, in this Chapter, I have to have a dedication to all the people who have helped it up to this stage.**

**Thanks to TWISTed-angel033 for you being the first person other than the friends I made read my stories to read Kage Sora.**

**My second thanks goes to Disbeliver-Un who is my inspiration for the name. The name of this story was her original idea and so I took the name and my already half-developed story to the next level.**

**This time, there is some slight Kaz-bashing… on second thought, why did I put that warning there? There is random OC-bashing in almost all of this story… **

**Hm… Rating would have to be just K+ I think…**

**Inspiration is Whataya want from me By Adam Lambert (again)**

**Warning: OCs and OC-bashing. **

**Oh, and everyone who has been up to date, in the time skip of 3 months, they have gone to 50-ish other worlds. So one battle per world and the games occasionally move worlds by themselves :P confusing eh?**

**Anyway, I hope that all of you who're reading enjoy this chapter!**

Chapter 18- Kaz

The first thing I noticed was that I had a splitting headache when I woke.

We were back in Zefie's apartment; the two suns in this world were just touching the skyline in the distance. That was the second.

The third was the soft sobs coming from near my arm.

The bones in my neck creaking from stiffness, I slowly turned my eyes to see a brown mop of hair. Blinking slowly, it dawned on my sluggish brain that it was Kiru who was crying. A soft whine came from near my foot and craned my neck to see who it was. Rio was cradling a miserable Zefie, their heads visible above the foot board.

I groaned and my head plopped back onto the pillow. The noise made Kiru look up. Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy from crying.

The first thing she did was give me a near literal bone-crushing hug. The second was cry into my shoulder and I raised a heavy hand to pat her on the back. Before my hand could even make contact with the air an inch away from her skin, she had grabbed my collar and hurled me at the wall. Smacking my already throbbing head against the wall, I cried out and crumpled to the floor.

"It's your fault they're dead!" she shrieked at me, Zefie and Rio sitting behind her with stunned expressions on their faces. Kiru had never snapped in battle, let alone at her friends.

She stormed over and grabbed the collar of my t-shirt, lifted me and slammed my bruised back on the wall (cracking it) and started pounding me in the face.

The first hit, by morality, hurt the most. Kiru was too good of a friend to attack any of her team mates. The first punch snapped my head back, blood spilling out of the cut in my lip and the inside of my cheek. She backhanded me a second time before Rio and Zefie could drag her off me. What really hurt the most was the fact that it really was my fault and that I was the root of so much grief in what remained of our team.

Kiru was breaking down.

"We didn't even get the chance to celebrate your fifteenth birthday." Kiru smiled sadly at the floor.

I admit it; my heart broke at that moment. Sure I've been called the ice machine and the demon with ice for a heart, but I think all of our different team mates had grown on me a little. Even Allen.

I crawled over on my hands and knees and sat next to her. Her crying had renewed and she ended up weeping into my shoulder. A wry grin made it to my face as hot pricks of tears welled up behind my closed eyes.

"Tch, Flika never even managed to change the name of our group after all this time." I murmured. Rio and Zefie managed to crawl over to our laps, their tears renewed and we spent half the afternoon crying and mourning over our friends. The fact that it was entirely my fault that they died weighed heavily on my shoulders.

Our sobs stopped at about three in the morning.

"Kaz, I'm hungry." Zefie peered up at me from long, wet, dark lashes. Rio mewled next to her on Kiru's lap. Kiru smiled sadly and wiped away the kid's tears, then dragged her sleeve over her own. I grinned down at the kids and said, "How about we go shopping for groceries and we cook some break-inner*?" That got the girls giggling, so I hopped down to the grocery store when I realised I couldn't cook. It was actually Allen who cooked for us. We didn't trust Flika or Keshi with a lighter let alone a stove!

When I got back, I handed Kiru the trio of shopping bags and got to work. In less than fifteen minutes, there was a hot meal in front of us that the kids were ravenously tearing into. In front of us, there were fish and chips with a light tartar sauce and sour cream. I lifted the first fork-full of fish to my mouth and tasted it. It was pretty good, rivalling Allen's food.

Kiru then explained to me that in her world, she took cooking classes in school. Her eyes welled up again; she was presumably thinking about her normal life back in her world with her friends… she would still be there if only Limbo hadn't rejected me and spat me back out into her world.

After our meal, we packed away our dishes and ditched any excess items. That included a painful reminder of Keshi when Rio unearthed her black hoodie from under a pile of magazines and clothes.

We took the lift down to the ground level and stepped out into the pale grey dawn of 4:30 am.

We hooked arms and jumped.

We landed, thudding into soft soil and long grass with pockets of flowers amid the meadow. The air was pure and fresh, untainted by human energy consumption.

Kiru had told me about her world's stupid decision with use of coal and the Earth's natural resources that resulted in debate of old politicians with nothing but fluff in their heads about the worsening state of her world.

We couldn't see a single building, only dense forest, trees spiralling upwards and bulging out occasionally to form what… looked… like…

"Tree houses," breathed Zefie. With a squeal, she took off, Rio trailing behind her, to explore the forest city.

I heaved out a great sigh and flopped down into the soft grass. The deep sorrow I had spent time wrestling into a deep, dark crevice of my mind threatened to creep out and plague my thoughts again.

The rustling near my ear signalled that Kiru also lay down beside me. We stared out into the sky as fluffy white clouds scudded across the blue expanse. The sunlight shone dappled by the trees as little birds fluttered through the trees and sang little tunes which lulled me into a sense of security.

Of course, that peacefulness just _had_ to be broken by somebody.

"HEEY! Are you guys in the Midnight games as well?" A figure blotted out the sunlight and if Kiru was wound up, you wouldn't have noticed until the moment her eyes flew open, rolled herself onto her hands, rocketed skywards and slammed her feet down on someone.

"Ow! What was that for?" Kiru was standing on a girl's forearms held up in defence from the attack. By the looks of it, she had snuck up and had tried to scare us. I think she got more than she bargained for.

The girl had a fair complexion with a dusting of freckles. Her sand coloured hair shone slightly in the stippled light. She was wearing a sleeveless shirt with a fairly high, open collar, a tartan skirt, long navy socks and black shoes. What was most astounding of all was that she was standing with another human on her forearms and she wasn't collapsing or even shaking for that matter!

Realising Kiru was still standing on her and glaring daggers at the person, the intruder tossed Kiru off her arms and turned to me still in the grass.

She scowled, "So, do you want to get to this world's registration building or not?"

I stared at her until she became uncomfortable and looked away. I shared a quick glance at Kiru and she nodded.

I stood, brushing off clinging bits of heather and grass.

"Sure, lead the way… um…"

"It's Luca (A/N Pronounced Loo-kah), or you just call me Luc (A/N pronounced Loo-se)." Luca turned away and started off across the field towards where Zefie and Rio had gone.

"Oh, by the way, I'm Kaz and this is Kiru," gesturing at said girl who smiled apologetically. "There are two other people in our group: Zefie and Rio. They went to explore the trees before you came and… uh…"

Luca smiled and apologised. "Don't worry. By now, they would have been found, directed to the registration and given a room."

Kiru and I sighed, glad that the two youngest of our remaining group were safe.

We entered the canopy of the trees and the temperature cooled considerably. The forest city was vast, larger than twelve Empire State buildings lying on their sides and just as wide! Protruding gracefully from the trees (as if they were grown out of them) were huge living quarters. Naturally, when we found them, Zefie had acquired a massive loft above the tree line with an awesome view of several hundred miles around. It was beautifully furnished; the wood was warm as if the sun had drenched it in its golden rays.

Our guide/hostess was surprised for some reason. Apparently, the trees actually had consciousnesses like humans. They could communicate with other trees; to the extent of the entire forest (we couldn't see the end of it even if we strained at the top of our house). The trees could also sense the feelings and aura of the people living in them. They only radiated heat (it was night when we met up with Zefie and Rio) when there were special types of people nearby such as custodians of the earth.

Zefie and Rio seemed to warm up to Luca pretty quickly. After a slight bout of shyness, Kiru and Luc started to talk before getting into a heated argument about whose sword was cooler.

When we questioned Luca, she looked around sheepishly.

"My power is of the earth. That's probably why the trees like me so much."

"By the way, are you on any team? Or are you a freelance?" I asked.

Luca looked away, her side fringe obscuring her eyes from our view.

"All of my team mates were KIA." She mumbled.

Oh…

"How about you join our group? Some of our former members have also been KIA. In the last battle as well." Zefie piped up with a smile.

Luca, Kiru and I looked aghast. She was mentioning something raw and painful with a smile on her face. I glanced at Rio and realised Zefie was only smiling as a defence mechanism: to not cry in front of her friends and make them feel even worse. I lightly touched Kiru on the arm and with one look into my eyes, she understood.

"So, what do you think?" I directed the question at Luca.

She calmed down and smiled a sad smile.

"Sure."

**Well, this chapter is finally done! Yay~!**

**I hope you all liked this story, so please keep on sending your praise and support to me. Thankyou all who have been reading and reviewing so best of luck on your stories and leave a review if you want me to read any of our stories to give constructive criticism. ^^**

**Lotsa love, hugs, cookies & cream from**

**Rugiku~**

***Break-inner is my version of breakfast and dinner if you haven't figured it out yet.**

**KIA means Killed In Action if anybody didn't know.**


	20. Chapter 19

**Hello all again, this is chapter 19. Please tell me if this story is getting boring or drawn out so I can revise some of my story. :) Also, if anybody has any plot points you want in this story, then fire away; I'm all ears!**

**Ask me if you want character profiles and I'll make a chapter on them. Including all birthdays, some secrets about them, their fave foods, drinks, whatever you want~ ^^ I'll also include a description of their star signs and you can all ogle over the fact that the characters are very much like their star signs. O_o**

**Anyway, hope you all enjoy this chappie and send in your praise! w**

**Oh, by the way, I'm going to try and post a chapter once a week on Fridays so I'm sure everyone will be happy. The only downside will be that the posts will be shorter. -_-;;;**

**P.S. I've had to rewrite some of my chapters due to changes in preference and requests.**

Chapter 19-Flika

Today was the day.

This will be the day we start our reign of terror in pursuit of our selfish interest!

Yeah, right.

Our day started with chow mien in Chinese takeaway boxes… for breakfast.

We had spent little under a week with Madame Red before she had to leave. We had full reign of the house and even could change locations if we wanted to. She would know anyway, though.

Weird enough was the fact that there was free electricity, free really fast internet and unlimited hot water everywhere we went.

Wow.

For the past four days, Keshi and I have been trying to wheedle who was on the mysterious picture Allen had plucked out of the folder before.

Anyway, we dumped our half eaten leftovers on a bench in the kitchen and with our typical routine, Allen went outside to care for the various animals outside and Keshi and I sat in my lounge to talk. This time we snuck into Allen's study, careful to avoid the large window. The manila folder was lying on the desk next to the Mac and wireless tablet*, it's papers were partly spilling out; obviously recently looked through.

We flipped the folder open and inside were sheets of paper about one Kasi Rukiro. It had information about her birth date, blood type and all that jazz. There was also a history of her family included as well as a list of achievements. One paragraph was:

_The blood link to the lukos tribe, particularly the Canisia family has yielded results on the psychosomatic nexus between the two tribes' connection of Project H. Further investigation of the patient's cerebral structure and function may show signs of fruition and development of Project H. _

Okaay…? What was Project H and who exactly was Kasi and her relation to Allen?

I shuffled through the pages a little more as Keshi scoured the place for the missing picture. Another page caught my attention with a familiar name.

_The blood relation to the patient is the last remaining link to their tribe. As long as the blood relation does not come into contact with the Soul Link, the operation will remain safe._

_Date XX/XX/XX_

_The blood relation, Rio Rukiro has come into contact with the soul link but does not appear to have connected. The two specimens have now fled their world and have been lost to our tracker._

_Last location: __ƃЩӁ҉ᵮᵠ•ԇҩ__ World 527804782._

I was about to hiss at Keshi to read the new piece of information when I was met with a very familiar chest in a black muscle shirt. I winced and glanced up.

Shoot, I wish I hadn't.

Allen can be scary as hell when he wants to be.

Allen was glaring down at me while I faintly registered the fact that he had snuck up on Keshi and had her in a headlock until she fainted since said person was gagging on the floor, gasping for breath.

I meekly handed the folder back to him and he stared at me for a little more, making me uncomfortable. I didn't move (as much as I wanted to!) since he was barring 90% of my way.

He then grinned at me.

I definitely didn't expect that.

"Ya know, you coulda just asked me about my past." He said, squashing the excuse that came to my mind. (sweat drop and face plant)

Allen raised a hand to ruffle my mid-length red-streaked hair. Keshi coughed politely behind Allen and helped her up.

"Um… who was on the picture you took out of that folder?" Keshi looked down at her black lace-up boots when Allen stared at her.

"Was that all?" he asked. We nodded and he shoved a hand down his pocket and fished out a slightly crumpled picture of a really pretty girl who looked the spitting image of Rio.

Her hair was a sandy blonde as opposed to Rio who had light blue. Her eyes were gold and they shone almost as much as the metal headband tied around her neck. She had a light cream, clingy shirt on and blue bike shorts with matching blue leg warmers. Her arm warmers were black and like Rio, she had blue-furred, long ears that stood erect on her head only Rio's were smaller and stubbier than Kasi's. She had black eye shadow-looking crescent over her eyes and on her forehead which were trademarks of the leader of their clan apparently.

Allen handed the photo over to Keshi and I and after about five minutes of staring (literally, she was that cute), we handed it back to him.

"Well, let's go; time to go wreak havoc on Game informants." I was so excited I literally skipped out of the doorway to put on my costume.

Half an hour later, I had my coat on and awkward stares in my direction. Whacking Allen over the head, I shoved him to the door.

**Done… This was what I meant by being 'short'. -_-**

**I'm thinking of ending this story but will come back with sub-stories about the Kage Sora and Korosu Kaze during random times in the story. The one-shots will be around T rated but mostly K+ rated. Some plot lines are like the different missions Kage Sora goes on and how they get the information. Battles from Korosu Kaze will also be included as well as side stories like 'Korosu Kaze goes camping'. Anyway, due to school demands and stuff, the schedule for story uploads will be more spread out. The finishing chapters will be on the same days, but on the first working week of each month; so say for example, August 2010, it'll be posted on the 6****th****. Same goes for the one-shots. **

**Thanks to all who support me and all you who love the story enough, review. It's the only way to keep me motivated.**


	21. Chapter 20

**Okay… Even I admit it. It's starting to die.**

**I've gotten a massive writers block and so I will jump forwards in my plot ideas and so will seem very sudden.**

**There will be a time jump of three years in which Kage Sora has become famous criminals that are most certainly after the Middle World Game Proctors. Slowly, Flika's group are working their way up the proverbial status ladder towards the head honchos in terms of information. Kiru's group on the other hand has become very popular and are on the verge of entering the semi-finals of the Middle Games. O_o **

**Hope you enjoy this fail story.**

**I'm so sorry this is starting to die.**

**TAT**

**Severe gore in this chapter and swearing, just to warn ya.**

**~0oO-Oo0~ means that it is an explanation. You can choose to read it or not, but it'll make more sense if it is read.**

**This chapter will be super long to make up for the holiday hiatus.**

**Oh, and I promise this will be the last costume change. ;)**

Chapter 20- Flika

"Okay… so what next?"

I looked up from the blueprint we had managed to swipe on the previous heist/murder to glare at Allen.

"I don't know."

A wicked grin spread along his face. "So our fearless leader has hit a dead end. Oh, what shall we do?" Allen struck a dramatic feminine pose.

I pointed at him.

"One more sound and I'll burn you beyond recognition." I threatened.

"Oh, and hey; where's Keshi?" I added as an afterthought.

Allen shrugged.

"Stakeout." Was the short reply.

I nodded and then rolled up the blueprint while standing.

"I have a plan now." I said, stowing away the blueprint. This caught Allen's interest.

"Hm? So what is it?" He asked.

"The plan is the old plan. It got us in four-hundred and twenty-three times before so it should work again." I walked to the coat stand which held our new (yet another) uniform for 'work'.

It consisted of just a long, black coat with a blood red inside. That added with a white, ceramic mask and lack of light posed the perfect confusion discerning the leader among Kage Sora (us).

"Tell Keshi to fall back and rendezvous at Point A," I lifted a coat off and let it settle onto my shoulders. "We're going in at 2300 hours. Send the Warning."

-Kaz

"Are you sure this is where Kage Sora's calling card said they'd be?" I nodded a slight fraction and returned to my book.

It was a crime mystery but I had already figured out the culprit. Then again, I had been brought up by a family of law enforcers.

A home full of traps, tripwires, bombs and mines every night when I come back from school.

What a pain. Well, at least the training paid off when my brothers and I became part of the law enforcement in the Games. We were introduced at an early stage to the 'kill or be killed' motto and so, my brothers and I became part of the Games to follow our family tradition.

It was only when my brothers and I had found a file on the computer of our security captain. It held lists upon lists of names of smuggled people and their values.

We had quit from the job legally but the law has bonds that surpassed it.

After the string of killings and thefts by Kage Sora, I located my last remaining brother- Cain- for help.

Cain, who was snoozing quietly behind us in our vantage point which was a small clearing in a forest, was fair and thin while having a build not unlike a dancer's. Our family had a history of having strange coloured hair (in my case, blue, in Cain's case, silver) and in our training days, we would be teased when the teachers weren't looking.

As if sensing my stare, Cain opened his icy blue eyes and grinned, both his teeth and eyes glowed slightly in the dark.

Snorting, I turned back to my book only to be disturbed by Kiru.

"Hey, are you sure? I mean occasionally, they turn up later than what the notice says and still end up getting away with whatever they're out to steal." Rio nodded in agreement.

I looked up and spied a tiny, yellow and aqua bird fluttering overhead. There was a crackle of static and Zefie's tiny voice wavered through our ear pieces.

"Kiru has a point, ya know. I think we should stick around for a bit. At least another three hours. Maybe we'll have some luck in catching them this time." I nodded, knowing that the little bird overhead could see (if you hadn't realised, it was Zefie).

In the time where we had gone from contestants in the Games to bounty hunters (there was a pretty heavy price on each of the member's heads), the Games were on hold. Quite a few of the Game organisers had been killed because of them.

I reached over to turn off the light crystal that came in abundance in this world (this world was powered by different types of crystals mined in underwater caves).

After that was done, I shoved the tattered book into one of my pockets and lay on my back to watch the stars.

Oh, yeah. I forgot something.

I concentrated and felt the deep swirling pool of power in the dog tag Zefie had given us what seemed like a lifetime ago. Hastily pouring in a quarter of my power into the store, I shut off the connection and closed my eyes as a wave of exhaustion washed over me.

"…pretty."

"Hm, what?" I said. I was close to sleep when Zefie's voice travelled through the air. Blearily, I opened my eyes and noticed that there was warmth next to me.

Flinching a little at the contact, I looked over at the people next to me. Kiru had crawled over since staring at a drab, grey building was _so _interesting. Zefie had transformed back into her normal self (she finally perfected the skill after many tries) and had cuddled up to Cain, much to his discomfort. Rio had also come over to my other side and was also gazing at the stars.

"I said, 'this world has very pretty stars'." Zefie's pink eyes reflected the shower of stars above.

I sighed, my exhaustion and frustration slowly dissipating. It always happened whenever I was around Zefie, as if she were an angel or something.

There was a slight ringing, like a 'riiiiik, riiiiik, riiiiik' and both Cain and I sat up straight. It was the same noise characteristic for entities that entered a world unidentified. There was a soft rumble and Luca jumped out of the ground, not unlike a dolphin jumping out of the ocean.

"This time they were two hours late. Eleven o'clock." She muttered before diving back into the dirt to start our attack.

Luca would go in first to distract them and then came me, Cain and Kiru. If we desperately needed help, Rio and Zefie would be our backup.

The drab building (which was a main office for Game proctors and also doubled as a gaol) suddenly flickered alive. Spotlights searched for the enigmatic group as guards poured out of the high security gates in anticipation of an attack. Low security prisoners dangled their arms out of their cell windows, calling out and cheering on the yet-to-be-seen attackers.

After a minute of tense silence, one of the waving lights caught the edge of something dark and human shaped. Immediately, all of the searchlights zoomed to the area and began scanning the sky. A large crowd (about 85% of the soldiers) were running towards the north gate (there were only two gates, the north was the entry, south was exit) with only a couple of stragglers charging after them. There was a crack like breaking stone and a mountain of earth sprayed upwards on the southern side of the compound; Luca's sign. Earth cornered the guards in the northern half of the compound and blocked entrances from cracks to locked gates.

Despite the group being very infamous, not much was known about their powers or background so all precautions had to be made.

We took a running leap and jumped through the air. This world had less gravity than most worlds so our already impressive jumping ability was enhanced and allowed us to span a couple of yards in one leap.

A black, shadowy figure swooped by and Kiru was quick to respond with a slash from her Katana. The rippling substance writhed and disappeared. Strangely, the substance reminded me of something but I couldn't put my finger on it.

Stunned, Kiru scanned the area for any other black wraiths. There were two others but they wavered and dissipated into the light air.

We landed on a high mound of dirt about five metres tall as Luca surfaced from the soil.

"I think they were just distractions. They already got in," said Luca. She jumped off the hill and planted her hands against the cold concrete wall to feel the vibrations.

"They're already on the third floor. All of the guards are dead," she stated as Cain asked, "How do you know?"

"The pulse in your body still makes a tiny vibration in the ground. There are no pulses on the first or second floor, but twelve on the third."

I whistled in astonishment. "Already more than half of the guards on the floor are dead already? These guys are strong…"

"Anyway, we can't really get in through my rock wall right now," said Luca. Zefie grinned and elbowed the elder girl.

"Well, we'll just make do, right Luc?" She giggled and flashed a bright aqua and transformed into a bird. "Hold on tight, Rio!" she chirped before flapping hard with her extra weight.

Cain coughed and asked, "How are we going to carry the others?"

I smirked. "Well, you are older so you should be able to carry more, right?"

Cain scowled at me while Kiru looked blankly at the two of us. Luca –who had caught on- said, "I'll take the stairs, thanks." Rolled her eyes and melded her body into the wall.

I shifted my centre of gravity and began walking up the vertical wall. Cain –after uttering a string of curses at me- picked Kiru up bridal style (much to her discomfort) and began walking up the wall after me.

I finally came across a broken window, the glass showering the carpet inside.

Pausing, I turned around to inspect the ground below. No glass there, so this must be the entry point. I hoisted myself inside, a couple of glass shards scratching my face, drawing blood and tearing my clothes.

Damn, that was my favourite hoodie!

Inside were bodies strewn haphazardly around, dark splotches slowly widening below them.

A quick scan of the room showed nothing of significance. I turned around to face Cain and Kiru who had just entered the room.

"I'll take the outside. Keep going up from here and stop anyone from entering this room. That includes the police. I want to check out the top." I stated in their direction and then climbed out of the room via the window. Outside, I heard Kiru volunteer to stay on the first floor.

I started to run up the drab grey wall to the great, circular glass construction at the top of the building.

There was a crash of glass and far above, there were sparkling shards raining down along with something square shaped and black. I saw Zefie flutter nimbly out of the way but accidentally dropped Rio.

This was like a game of snakes and ladders, for god's sake!

And Zefie really should work on her transformations.

I dodged to the right, narrowly missing the rain of glass when a steel-like grip grabbed my ankle. Inside the open window I was crouching next to were a silver gauntleted hand and a white mask staring out from the inky depths of the room.

The grip loosened slightly from shock or something and let go all together when a kunai knife shot past, stabbing the hand as it wisely retreated back into the room.

"Go…" said Rio as Zefie dropped him at the window. There was a crash inside and Rio leapt inside to dodge a table as it smashed against the windowsill, showering me with splinters.

I leapt forwards, charging upwards.

I vaguely recognised shape of Luca, Zefie and Cain as they all entered the same room just to be slammed back out with shadows.

Dodging the writhing tentacles of shadows, I looked up again only to have something wet fall on my face.

_Rain? _

I touched the liquid and it came away sticky and dark.

_No… Blood._

I looked above and grabbed a nearby window sill to just avoid an arm flying in my direction.

Pulling myself up, I dodged the next couple of mutilated body pieces (one and a half fingers, half a foot and a kneecap, all bloody if you really wanted to know) before part of a ribcage slapped me in the face.

Spitting out the blood that had splattered the inside of my mouth, I leaped one more time to find a sculpture room surrounded by lush garden. In a chair made of granite, there was a whimpering man with three and a half fingers, one and a half feet, one kneecap and half a torso bleeding profusely onto the grey stone.

He had been tied brutally to the chair with barbed wire and had a wreath of flowers around his head.

The man was shaking, muttering prayers into the thin air and in one of his (half) hands was a broken silver chain.

The man, noticing me, suddenly screamed, "She's the Devil, I say. No, she does not fear anything… Back from the dead, yes… face like the Devil, yes… body like that of a false god but the Devil in her heart, yes… I tried not to betray you, god but I was too weak… yes, I told her… I told her about you; the Creator, yes…"

Well, he went on like this for a bit before nearly ripping out his other arm to scream and desperately try to escape from someone or something.

There was a light giggle and a question; "Do you think you are God?"

The man stopped and started on his nonsense again.

"No, I am but the son of the Creator, just one of his many-gurrrk!"

A black whip with sliver etchings lashed out and viciously tore the man (well, most of him. The remaining arm and the leg without the kneecap were still tied to the chair…) from the pedestal and flung him screaming into the air. Another quick snap, there were loops of whip wrapped around the man.

The man was dangled twenty metres from the floor and there was a click.

"Ghyaaaark!" cried the man as thorns four inches long pierced the pudgy man. One last flick and the tattered remains of flesh and splintered bone fluttered to the floor.

"Hn… never liked those type of men," said the figure holding the bloody whip, standing just outside the glass dome.

-Keshi

It was five minutes to eleven when a black coat was plopped over my head. Looking up, it was the figure of my best friend, partner in both crime and family; Flika.

She smiled down at me and sat down next to me.

"They're back this time as well." She said, looking over to the left towards a thicket where the tiny glimmer of a light crystal shone weakly through the leaves.

I nodded and stretched.

"They've been after us ever since the Games were put on hiatus." I sighed into the still night air.

Flika snorted. "The games were paused just so all twenty remaining groups could come after us as bounty hunters. As if we didn't already have enough trouble with them already."

We both grinned, remembering a certain joke.

"At least we cut the competition in half for them!" we said at the same time and chuckled quietly.

"We really did cut the last group in half though," I added. "Yeah, it took me hours just get all the blood off my scythe," agreed Flika as we fell into a heap of silent giggles.

Flika suddenly asked, "Do you believe that there is a god that created all things?"

I paused. I didn't really have a religion, nor did I really care for one. Although, there still was the question of where did everything come from?

"I dunno…" I said.

"Back in my world, my family was religious but my sister and I were forced into it." Flika leaned back and stared at the stars. "I was never really sure about what I believed in…"

I sighed.

"If it's forgiveness you want, don't ask it from me." I said before standing.

Flika smiled and followed suit and gave me surprise hug. "Thanks. You, Allen, Kaz, Zefie and the rest of them are my family now, whether or not they know it."

I smiled and hugged her back. If Flika ever showed any sort of affection, it meant more than the entire world we were in and more; she was too independent.

Allen appeared behind us and poked Flika in the ribs.

"Ack, hey! Allen, don't do that!" (**o_o A/N: I really don't like being poked in the ribs!**) Flika punched him in the shoulder and turned away.

There was a _'shaaaaaa'_ sound as Flika's new Flame Boots activated.

~0oO-Oo0~

One day, Madame Red produced a new set of weapons for us.

For Flika, it was a pair of blood red, thigh length boots made of some foreign metal. There were spaces in-between the light-weight plates to allow movement and gold bands around her ankles that showed how much energy output there was whenever she moved.

For me, it was a bodice. It was a corset type look, but allowed you to breathe normally. It had black lace ruffles all the way down to the knees on the back and red tightening straps. A large, blood red bow stuck out at the back giving the impression of a butterfly.

For Allen, Madame Red produced a pair of silver gauntlets with dark red patterns snaking around on the metal. The fingers were long and slender and the silver wrapped its way up to his shoulders but on Allen, the gauntlets were so oversized, they nearly touched the floor!

The new items were meant to help us in some way but when the doctor disappeared, we finally used them and found out that the new accessories enhanced our abilities.

For example, we could all fly.

In theory, Flika would move by creating and manipulating thermals; columns of warm air. The hotter the air, the further it would push Flika. For me, the corset utilised my own powers and formed 'shadow wings' as we called it. The power would travel through the corset and into the ribbon, creating wings. Finally, Allen could change the form of his gauntlets as the metal came from his world, meaning it was familiar to him and easy to use.

~0oO-Oo0~

"We need some cover and a distraction, Keshi." ordered Flika as we put on our backup disguises and masks.

I grinned, "Coming right up!"

A wispy cloud of darkness surrounded us as three wraiths sped off towards the searchlights.

We took off, rising into the air. There were shouts and a commotion before we started to move towards the building.

We came to the first floor so Allen smashed the window we were at and then slid in. There were shouts from the inside and a single gun shot when there was silence.

Then did Keshi and I enter. There was a slight shudder and dust rained down from the grey ceiling.

Flika took off from the window and leaped up the stairs, me hot on her heels. Allen moved downstairs to dispatch the guards on the floor below us.

Flika and I took care of the next few floors when I saw a white and blue flash pass the window.

"Go on ahead, someone's coming. If you don't hurry, we might have to fight our way out!" I cried before hacking down three burly men in black suits in one swipe.

Flika glanced back and nodded in acknowledgement before increasing her running speed close to gale force.

I turned back, my back against the wall, and waited amidst the dripping blood for the attacker with nothing but a pounding heart and deep breathing.

A soft rumble near my feet alerted me to something and I dived to my right.

Concrete and dust flew up as a girl around my own age revealed herself wielding a chainsaw.

We stared in silence and as if on cue, sparks began to fly.

-Flika

As I jumped and leaped, winding my way up the tower, I blew guards to the side. A sealed portal in the roof loomed close so I twisted and slammed a heel into the steel plated, Kevlar coated trapdoor. There was a considerable dent made in the metal as I shot out of the hole and into a greenhouse style garden. The door flew off the hinges and smashed a portion of window

Lush palms and long-leafed plants were dotted along the white gravel paths while granite statues poked out of the shrubbery every couple of metres. The only thing that stood out among the cliché greenhouse was the quivering mass of flesh that knelt/wobbled in front of a granite chair.

"Are you Canister Tim?" I asked, feeling my belt for the barbed wire, whip, knife and garrotte thread (I had given my last weapon, my silver scythe, to Keshi).

The man turned around sharply and promptly started drooling.

I felt a tick develop above my right eye so I stormed forwards, dragged the man up and slammed him into the chair he was kneeling at.

With a flick of my wrist two different loops of wire wrapped around the man, deeply gouging the flesh beneath and I repeated my question; "Are you Canister Tim?"

The man stared a little and then snapped out of his trance.

"I am a follower of the Creator and so, I am strong and will not succumb to your approaches." The man sniffed, "I will not tell you that my name is Canister Tim."

I stood stock still.

_This guy is a mental case; otherwise, he's just plain stupid. _I thought.

I shook my head and asked again, "What is the Hacedor Project and what does it have to do with the slaves that have been bought off the Black Market?"

The man turned his face away and stuck up his nose; wasn't pleasant.

I twitched and whipped out my knife and promptly hacked off his arm. There was a spray of blood as I picked up the severed limb and threw it out of the hole the door had created when I first entered.

The man howled in pain and I grinned behind my mask, a little bubble of adrenaline and pleasure popping inside me.

Yes, I am an S type.

"Are you willing to answer my questions now?" I asked again.

The man quivered and then spat onto my mask.

I sighed, the mask making it sound hollow.

"I guess not." Another swipe severed a finger. That was tossed out after the arm along with half his foot that I wrenched off with my whip, half a finger and a kneecap I scraped off with the knife.

By the end of his torture, he was sweating bullets and blubbering all over himself. A silver bracelet with a cross motif slick with blood appeared in his hand and he started to mutter prayers.

"Not this crap again…" I muttered before raising a hand to smash one side his rib and yank it out with my gloved hands. He screamed horribly and started to twitch.

Blood seeped through the tough, black materials of my glove and sleeve before chucking that out of the window.

I skipped around, plucking flowers to thread into a crown. Once I had finished, I plopped it onto the silent (thankfully) man.

"Now I will spare your short life if you answer my questions." I stated before backhanding the corpulent man to wake him up, causing his chin to wobble.

The man whimpered and said, "There's a file in the stone throne. It has all of the information you need," His hand tightened on the cross he was holding. "But, you'll never get the file…"

I sighed and walked over. Grabbing the cross, I pulled down sharply; snapping the chain. I dangled the cross in front of the man's face.

"Thanks for the key," I said before I heard the muttering start up again and a soft curse outside, coming from the hole. I turned and leapt into a nearby bush to hide before I saw a familiar white hoodie force its way through the jagged hole.

I swiftly moved to outside the hole, behind the new figure.

Light blue hair, white hoodie and a silver gun… crap, crap, crap.

I really did not want to fight Kaz right now.

The rambling went on for a bit before I got tired of it. Evidently, Kaz had gotten sick of it too.

Clearly he hadn't changed either…

I said something random and then disposed of the man.

I stared down at the tattered remains fluttering to the floor when a loud clack and cold steel was pressed at the back of my head.

We stood still; only the wind moved and plucked our clothes and hair like ghost's hands.

"Why did you do that?" inquired Kaz.

I smiled and said, "Fancy seeing you here."

I could almost feel the frown. "You say that as if you know me…"

"That's just conjecture on your account."

"But you remind me of someone, but I can't put my finger on it…"

I turned. "Who? Your girlfriend or something?"

Kaz scowled. "You still haven't answered my question."

"Ah… so I do remind you of your girlfriend…" I stepped into safety, away from the six-storey drop.

"Argh! I don't have a girlfriend!" Kaz circled with me.

"Really? I'd have thought you were more popular than that…"

"… Shut up."

"Are you sure it's not someone in your little club that's _died_ before?" I was joking, of course but I think it may have gone a bit too far.

"I SAID, SHUT UP!" Kaz pulled the trigger all of a sudden.

My mask shattered as I sank into darkness.

-Cain

I pulled myself into a room and all I was met with was darkness.

Shadows writhed around the walls and clung to every crevice. Amidst the black was what appeared to be a floating mask, like the moon.

I dimly registered the fact that both Zefie and Luca had been in the room previously but were nowhere to be found despite the circular chamber being only ten paces in diameter.

The shadows suddenly convulsed and spat out two girls only to be swept into me with a long, dark tentacle. We all flew out of the window, winded and struggled to find a steady place to land…

… But we were three floors up.

Zefie transformed into a larger bird than usual and managed to grab Luca and me before we started to fall. The yellow and aqua bird flung us at the wall before flapping away to wheel around for another attack.

Luca was absorbed into the wall and I braced myself against the concrete, shifted my centre of gravity and vaulted back into the room.

I dodged the first tentacle, slashed apart the second with my twin-bladed katana and blocked a third before another tendril wrapped my torso and slammed me into Luca who had just popped out of the floor.

There was a blinding flash of light and the black tendrils shied away, revealing someone shielding their eyes. I took the chance to swipe at the person, pinning the coat they were wearing to the wall. Zefie, who was the epicentre of the light, formed a great, golden bow and promptly shot the person.

He (I'm assuming it was a he) shuddered and swayed before collapsing to the floor, tearing the coat.

Immediately, the shadows dissipated and the arrow of light faded away. I walked over and pulled my sword out of the wall and flipped the guy over onto his back.

That was when I realised the 'guy' was a 'girl'.

"…"

"I'm going up to meet Kaz. You guys take care of things here." I quickly slid out of the broken window and continued up the tower with cheeks burning.

-Allen

Creeping down to the first floor was pretty easy.

What wasn't easy was the mess made after all of the guards died. Let's just say they died with lots of flailing involved…

I returned to the second floor to see a little insect so I decided to squash it.

I reached out of the window and grabbed the ankle of… our old second-in-command.

Sure we didn't really have official leaders and stuff but we all decided that I was the leader and Kaz was second, even though it was more the other way around. He didn't really fit the leader type but naturally had followers and the skills to move them.

Anyway, when I saw Kaz's defensive and scared face, I completely freaked out and loosened my hold on him. A black knife came soaring through the air, digging a groove into my gauntlet before bouncing away.

I withdrew from the window and who followed me in?

Rio.

~0oO-Oo0~

Of all the people in our happy little group that I loved the most, it was Rio every single time; closely followed by Zefie and Flika. That was the only reason why I chose to leave my closest remaining family behind and leave with a… unique person.

Now, my… little brother was attacking me at full force in a cramped tower full of dead people.

~0oO-Oo0~

I dodged the first three knives that Rio tossed at me and blocked the series of kicks and punches that came my way next.

I flicked my fingers and steel pipes from the floor burst out of the concrete and flew at the boy.

Rio dodged most of them but like battling a waterfall, the boy was pinned to the wall.

Coming close, I lowered my height to appear less threatening and slightly lifted my mask enough to talk properly.

"I'm looking for your sister."

Rio suddenly stopped struggling and attempted to see my face better, seemingly trying to tell if I were me. He squinted in the darkness and I realised, Rio wasn't a child anymore.

He was almost my shoulder height and on par with Kaz. He still held a slight cherubic look that had matured into an adolescent.

We stared at each other before a large amount of water suddenly enveloped me. Bubbles escaped unwillingly, rising to the top of the sphere none other than Kiru had created. I attempted to escape by swimming, thrashing, anything that would work. I turned to release Rio from the wall but my lungs didn't hold out.

As the darkness seeped into my vision, I prayed that Rio would at least explain to Kiru before I expired.

**Like?**

**Loathe? **

**Sorry for the lateness. -_-**


	22. Chapter 21

**I may have to pause my chapters because my finals are coming up and I really need all of my drained creative juices to resupply. -_-;**

**If you still don't get why I called the story Kage Sora (Shadow Sky), it's because the world(s) we live in are corrupt, steeped in shadows and the last dregs of light in the free sky are gone and we are all drowning in the darkness. It is in this darkness that monsters thrive in; more so god. In darkness humans always need a leader or some outside party helping and guiding them through into the promised land of light.**

**This will probably be the last chapter I write until after my School Certificate so you all should be prepared to wait until about late October or something. .**

**Enough of this prattle, this chapter is based on Ai Otsuka's Cherish from the Draw With Me video.**

Chapter 21

-Kaz

As soon as the body hit the floor, a silver dog tag flew off the girl's neck and landed a little ways away. At the same time, Cain clambered into the greenhouse and grimaced at all the blood sprayed everywhere.

I walked over to the girl who had, surprisingly, a pair of aviator's goggles over her eyes that were tinted red. Reaching out to take off the goggles, a stray synapse in the back of my head remembered something but my brain failed to comprehend.

"Hey, remember, we're supposed to hand her over to the real authorities." Cain reminded me. Ever since we left the force, we were hounded by other colleagues who either:

Hated us with a passion

Fanatically looked up to us

All of the above

I sighed and replied; "I feel like I've met her before but I can't remember… I want to at least try to see her face."

"You sound like some love-sick idiot!" Cain sighed and threw her hands up in the air in frustration then walked over to the dog tag on the ground. Picking it up, Cain inspected every inch of the metal and turned the face over to an inscription on the back.

Cain froze.

"I think you know her better than anyone else, Kaz." Cain's voice was soft but held a soft tremor of emotion.

When your big brother starts freaking out, you know it's bad…

"What the Hell are you talking about? You're not making any sense; I've never met her before so how will I know her?" My frustration grew and I leant down to slide off the aviator goggles.

As my fingers eased off the obscuring glass, the girl's eyes flew open and a hand snapped up to grab my wrist.

The girl twisted and slipped through my fingers as she flipped and pushed away from the ground, soared overhead and snatched the silver necklace from Cain's slack fingers.

In a flash, my gun was out and a flash of silver signalled that Cain was already charging towards the girl with his double bladed sword out.

I fired three shots and there was a great roar of flame as the bullets I had fired were incinerated and Cain jumped away. The girl had brought out a long whip that was coated in flames and had razor sharp barbs at the end. The whip cracked and tongues of flames flared out, cinders flying and singeing my already ruined hoodie.

With a flick of her wrist, a strip of burning leather slammed down onto the floor, burning and cracking the concrete and I would have been underneath it if I had not leapt out of the way at the last second.

Cain flashed near her flank and the girl instantly jumped away. Obviously, she was no beginner with her weapon. Since it was a whip, she would not be able to defend easily against a close range weapon like Cain's blade.

However, Cain was a master of his sword. My older brother raised his sword similar to a baseball bat pose. Note: you never, ever hold a sword like that. You have too many openings for your opponent to take advantage of…

…Unless it was on purpose.

Cain and I were partners for years and it only took a minute to remember all our old tricks and skills we learnt together.

The girl saw the opening and went straight for the kill. She jumped high into the air and turned to give more force into her whip.

Just to make it seem more realistic, I fired off four more desperate shots, emptying my gun of bullets.

Cain grinned and slashed through the air. Of course, the girl was not nearly as close as possible to the blade to actually hurt her.

It was the shock wave that did.

Silver lines of sound waves roared through the air, bypassed the whip's loose barrier and slammed into the girl, throwing her high into the air. I followed up with more bullets, spraying into the plants and trees behind her.

Well, if you are wondering how my gun is empty (I never carry and refills, mind you) and I'm still able to fire bullets? It's actually water from the atmosphere condensed and frozen; endless supply of bullets as long as there was water. Couple me with Kiru; you have an impossible-to-beat team.

Landing relatively safely (if you consider severe internal damage, broken ribs and some low-damage bullet wounds 'relatively safe') the girl turned and ran further into the green house.

The greenhouse was about half a kilometre in diameter and was covered in foliage save for about ten square metres of glass flooring –which we were standing on previously.

We paused outside the ring of plants. In there, the girl would have an advantage; all of the plants surrounding the girl were poisonous and their sap exploded on contact with heat.

"I'll freeze the trees if you want; it might prevent them from exploding…" I started. Cain looked thoughtful.

"Nah, too much trouble."Cain shrugged and marched right on in.

I shook my head.

"You're such a lazy bastard."

-Flika

_This is bad, this is bad…_

I crashed through the growth, burning away obstructions in my path. I saw a faint glimmer of light ahead. Thinking it was the edge of the greenhouse, I made my way towards it only to find that it was a circular patch of hard earth.

Great.

A twig snapped and I hurled my body to one side as bullets turned one side of the clearing into confetti. A flash of silver flickered across my vision and soon enough, it was followed by searing pain in my left arm, just under the elbow.

My blood didn't pour out of the wound, it sprayed like a coke bottle that you shake then open. It covered a surprising amount of area and flew at least three metres up into the air before raining own upon us.

I lurched away, clutching my wound which was pouring out sickening amounts of blood with every one of my elevated heartbeats. The fingers in my left hand felt dead and the best amount of movement I could get out of them was a half-hearted twitch.

Great. Not only did my luck and chances of survival go down further than Hell itself, my vision was getting shaky and I kept tripping over my own feet. My foot skidded in something slippery and my balance was shot for a second.

The silver-haired guy lashed forwards and I had to perform a dodge that would have made the director of the Matrix proud. Flipping, I pushed the ground with my right hand, making soar straight into the path of the bullets Kaz fired at me. As one hit me hard in the shoulder, I thanked whatever deity was out there who gave the Doctor the insight to give us bullet-proof jackets.

Boy was he not going to be happy when he found out who I am…

Shaking my head, I reasoned whether or not I could survive a forest fire; especially one that _I_ caused. I placed my back against a thick tree that sprouted fur and my clothes came off with sticky crap with I don't really want to know what.

_Oh well, I hope this sap doesn't douse the fire… or make the flames explode._ I get the feeling I would be getting both ends of the short stick today.

Clicking my fingers, a spark flew and as I caught it with my thumb and forefinger, it was eventually coaxed into a flame, then a fireball. I saw Kaz's eyes widen and the older boy charge forwards and I knew all hell would break loose if I set the greenhouse on fire.

I pressed the flame into the soggy, sap-drenched wood.

It's indescribable: the sound, I mean. It's like a feral roar… or a scream from one of the big cats back on Earth. Maybe, you can just explain it as 'Satin screaming'.

Anyway, the entire forest was one huge explosion. The first one knocked me straight off my feet and tossed me into another explosion. I curled into a protective ball and despite the majority of my body being protected; I still felt pain blossom against my hands and on the left cheek.

I was unceremoniously dumped into a pile of burning needles that gave off an odd green smoke, the embers searing the hem of my coat. Rolling to my feet, I surveyed the accidental damage.

The blade-wielding guy was lying motionless two feet away; part of his loose, black shirt was burning. I peered closer and was certain that he was still alive, breathing softly; but would die if the flames weren't put out soon. Sighing, I slid off my black coat and cast it over the flames. Instantly, the flames went out; the heavy, black material smothering the embers.

I bent down to check his vital signs. Pulse: check. Breathing: check. Then I flipped him onto his back.

I reached out for my coat until for the second time in twenty minutes; a gun barrel was pointed at my head.

Fun.

"I'm starting to get sick of this dance, Kaz." I said, a grin tugging at my lips. Behind me, Kaz stiffened. "How do you know my name?"

"I've known you a long time. You just don't remember it very well." My fingers curled around the edge of my coat. "Well, I guess a little over three years can do that to you." I could hear the creaking of the bones in Kaz's trigger finger.

"Still unsure? Let me give you a hint…" I spun and hurled my coat onto Kaz, covering his weapon and view.

"You killed me!"

-Kaz

No way.

Everything finally clicked.

That voice, the way she stood, even the clean smell of her from the coat.

That was Flika.

**Yay~ **

**Hoped you liked this chapter. I'm not sure, but I think no one's reading this story online anymore… If you are, then review and put my doubts to rest. **

**._.;;;**

**Well, ja ne.**

**Hey! Rashina, stop chewing on my earphone… No, don't swallow it!**


	23. Chapter 22

**Hi all again…**

**I have Yearly examinations and revision for the school cert this week so I'm gonna fail epically and die in a hole somewhere in my back garden. Since it is School Certificate straight after that, I won't be on for the next seven weeks approximately.**

**And I'm gonna die. *faceplants***

**Did I mention that?**

Chapter 22

-Kaz

I threw off the coat (which I was surprised to find that it was fireproof) and it landed gracefully back onto Cain, protecting him from the still crackling flames. Many glass floor panels had been blown out from the explosion; little sparkling shards of glass glimmered up like ice far below, reflecting the light of a sickly dawn.

Jumping along the long, white metal supports, I closed the gap between myself, Flika and the closest hole in the roof/floor. There was a flash of heat and Flika's legs were on fire. I cried out in alarm but it died in my throat as I watched the flames coalesce and wrap around Flika's legs to form blood red boots that shone in the sickly light.

The pair of glowing rings around her ankles started whirling faster as Flika ran. In foresight, I froze the surrounding gaps with shots of ice and started to slide on the ice, making better speed than running.

Flika took a running leap and cracked the closest sheet of ice. The frozen liquid cracked but did not break. In an instant, the ice warped and started climbing up the shiny, crimson planes of Flika's boots. Eyes widening, Flika struggled to break free from the increasing ice, even letting her boots turn a cherry red from heat and the energy she expended to melt the climbing ice.

The ice sizzled and started to melt but I slammed both my palms down onto the connecting ice and let my power flow through and the ice hardened again.

Flika hissed and her boots turned white hot, the heat finding its way through the air to scorch my face. The ice started streaming and turned slushy as Flika's boots began to shift. At my limit, I struggled to even keep the ice cold. I snarled and tapped into the power I had stored in my dog tag. With the amount of power inside the tag moving through my body and into the ice, it was like being the wall of a burst dam.

The air temperature plummeted, and I mean _plummeted._ The temperature went from 47°C to at least -152°C (I had been in both temperatures… not fun), the fires instantly going out or releasing a large amount of hissing steam and smoke as the water in the remaining wood was frozen then burned and evaporated. Mist rose from the now slick floor and I hoped desperately in the midst of my shaking, as the magic poured into my ice, that Flika's jacket was also cold-proof.

Eyes widening, Flika desperately formed a protective shell of flaming tongues of fire that spat and hissed like a pit of snakes.

The ice shone a blinding white-blue and the crystals that encased Flika's boots sprouted white, snowy flowers, climbing higher in a rush. In less than a second, the head of Kage Sora was encased in un-meltable ice: a snow coffin.

Panting, I let the power dissipate and inspected my handiwork. Scorch marks striped the floor, warping the glass below. A few windows were still glowing a faint orange as the head of Police charged in through the open trapdoor and promptly fell through one of the windows, screaming 'Freeze!' all the way down.

I looked at Flika, frozen in the ice; her eyes were open, despite the cold and I bet if she got out of the ice, she would have muscle cramps for days.

The eyes flicked to me.

I jumped and nearly scrambled away before realising, she was still alive. Quick as she glanced at me, she looked back.

The Policemen surrounded the iceblock, fastening black cables that they had brought along with them.

As soon as they finished, a tall, familiar man stepped through the trapdoor.

It was Aaron Fisher, one of the Directors of the Midnight Games. Aaron walked closer to the ice and touched the smooth surface. He smirked.

"What a beautiful end to the head of Kage Sora," Aaron tapped the ice as if it were glass on a fish tank and gestured at the flower shapes at the bottom of the ice prison. "You certainly work on your sculpture designs." Aaron turned to me and smiled his fake smile.

I looked away and scowled at a couple of sputtering cinders, "It just happens that way…"

I had heard about rumours that accused the Directors kidnapping people from different worlds for some underground project and this guy was on the top of the list as Director of the Hacedor Project. I wasn't going to just explain the mechanics of my powers to him.

"Well, now that we have the thorn out of our side, we can proceed with the summoning." Aaron turned away and walked past the line of troops that were aiming their weapons at me.

_What summoning?_

The Director waved his hand.

"Kill him."

-Cain

Just moving my left arm was hell.

Something heavy was covering my back. I felt the temperature drop about a hundred degrees and instantly felt my body freeze up.

Bending my fingers, I cracked the frost that had formed over them and forced myself up. That girl's coat slipped off my back, dragging strips of burnt flesh off with the slightest friction. I winced and staggered closer to where the cold was coming from.

Leaves scraped across my face, neck and wound, sending pain shooting around my body.

'_Ready, aim…'_

Huh? They were going to shoot the girl already?

Light filtered through the branches ahead. Stepping out of the foliage, I registered Kaz exhausted, an ice coffin with that girl inside and the bad end of about twenty rifles.

"FIRE!"

I flinched and the world slowed. The triggers of twenty rifles being pulled closer to shooting… until the ice block cracked and exploded.

I shielded my face from the ice that exploded outwards, peppering deep into the men aiming at us. Every one of the shooters died of ice piercing their hearts or heads and clambering out of the smoking mess of ice was none other than that girl: head of Kage Sora.

The Director guy was also hit, but not dead (unfortunately). He scowled at us and disappeared down the trapdoor.

"… Did she just save us?" I asked Kaz as he shakily stood up.

Kaz grinned at me and the girl. "Thanks for the distraction, Cain. I knew I could count on both of you."

The girl grinned as well and stepped closer. "Turn around." The girl ordered. I opened my mouth to protest but Kaz cut in.

"Just do what Flika says; you won't win."

Grudgingly, I turned around and sat on the floor as Flika slapped her hand on the burnt flesh of my back.

I yelped in pain and Flika slapped me upside of the head.

"It's just a bit of pain, get used to it!"

I scowled and vowed under my breath that I would get her back for this. Flika twisted her hand and I bit my lip, smothering a scream as I felt the nerves there sear in pain. All of the burnt flesh on my body went cold and returned to normal temperature.

"There, just a small scar on your back but nothing to worry about! Now Kaz, come here."

I reached back tentatively and felt a small splotch of healed over scar tissue. There was an outbreak of coughing from Flika and Kaz, alarmed, turned and caught her.

Blood was dripping out of her mouth and onto the ground, as Kaz checked her over.

"Internal bleeding. We need to get her to Kiru," Kaz looked at me.

"Hell, no. I am not carrying her on my back!" My younger brother sighed and picked up Flika and bodily threw her at me.

"I can't carry her because I'm burnt." Kaz scowled at me and tapped his foot on a piece of ice. His gold gun and my sword slid out of the ice and he picked up both of them. With an afterthought, he picked up Flika's whip as well.

The whip wriggled and the handle opened up as a mouth and bit down hard on Kaz's hand. I winced as he screamed, hearing bones break. The whip let go and stood a bit like a snake, little black-jewelled eyes glaring at us.

"What the hell are you dumbasses doing?" The whip spoke.

The whip _spoke…_

Kaz and I stared shocked at the black whip/snake thing.

"Well? Ya gonna say something or catch flies with your mouths?" This… thing was gonna get on my nerves sometime in the next three seconds.

The snake sighed and shook it's… uh… head. "Put Flika down."

Great ordered around by not just a girl, but an inanimate object in less than ten minutes. I scowled at the snake and dropped Flika unceremoniously. Kaz just shook his head in disappointment.

The whip/snake/thing slithered over and inspected her closely.

"Someone slap her hard." It stared at us with glass eyes and we looked at each other.

"Make it fast or she won't make it." The whip slithered away to some other place to see and added, "She's not breathing."

-Kaz

I sighed and crouched next to Flika's prone form and shutting down violent images of what Flika may or may not do to me once she woke up, I slapped her face with my non-broken hand.

She moaned and sat up.

"…"

"My face hurts…"

"…"

"Was that you Kaz?"

I paled and got ready to run but the snake whip cut in.

"I told them to hit you."

Flika stopped and looked at the whip.

"Oh, okay."

_Huh? That's it?_

"Kaz, Kaz's older brother I think, meet Zak."

The whip bowed in respect and I thought; _it's never going to tell her it broke my hand…_

"Anyway, let's go find everyone else!" Cain grabbed my arm and started for the exit, Flika scrambling after us, half-heartedly trying to get our attention.

As we neared the door, our group appeared; popping up like rabbits from a hat.

Everyone stared at Flika for a bit with the same question in their eyes: _Who is she?_

"AH‼"

Zefie's eyes widened and pointed a finger at Flika in recognition. Jaws dropped and a shocked silence stretched on until Flika shouted, "This isn't what I wanted!"

And with that, she ran at a frost-caked window and smashed it with a single kick, following the glass out. Kiru was first to recover and melting the surrounding ice; she launched herself out of the same hole with the water acting as a propeller.

A tentacle formed from the water and grabbed hold of Flika's foot, adding extra weight to her flying boots. The girls plummeted towards the ground and closer to the police loading two figures, one wrapped in light bands, the other in plastic cuffs, into the back of a van.

Steam began to rise off the water Kiru had wrapped around Flika and the water girl wisely put distance between her and the explosion that followed.

A white streak plummeted down the building and grabbed Kiru before she hit the ground; Zefie flaring her wings to stop short of the hard earth.

Flika increased speed and flipped midair to land hard on the roof of the van, effectively denting it.

Luca tapped the glass beneath us and it turned into sand, into which we sank like stones and safely appeared on the ground, thirty levels below.

"What the… What happened to the squad on the top level? They were supposed to be capturing her!" One of the guards reached for his comm. unit and had his face blasted off with an open palm. Flika released his melted face from her hand and dodged the bullets fired at her, looming up close to every man and blasting through them (literally) with a kick of her bare hands. One guard managed to get his gun up and firing in between himself and Flika kept dodging until she bit off the gun from the poor guy's hands. He man howled in pain and clutched the stump that remained as Flika spat out what ever was inside her mouth.

On second thought, it was debatable if Flika really was Flika. I mean the black-filled eyes weren't really a giveaway. If it wasn't the eyes, then the skin had turned from flesh-colour to literally an unhealthy paper white with twisting, black patterns etched all over.

… Were those horns coming out of her head?


End file.
